It was Addison,
and not La Bruyere, who broke down once for all, and finally, the
monkish conception of women as the betrayers of the human species,
which had lingered on so detestably from the Middle Ages.
The influence of La Bruyere on Steele is apparent, and may have
preceded that on Addison. We may observe that Steele says, in the
general preface to the _Tatler,_ "the elegance, purity and correctness
which appeared in [Mr. Addison's] writings were not so much to my
purpose as... to rally all those singularities of human life, through
the different professions and _characters_ in it, which obstruct
anything that is truly good and great," The similarity of expression
here is certainly not accidental; La Bruyere stood before Steele as a
model when he wrote, for instance, in 1709, Mr. Isaac Bickerstaffs
"portraits" of Chloe and Clarissa, or the "lucubration" on Deference
to Public Opinion. When La Bruyere died, Steele was already an author,
and what is more, a moralist. It is impossible not to believe that he
had been reading the "Caracteres" when it occurred to him that he
might procure himself "a most exquisite pleasure," by framing
"Characters of Domestic Life.
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