Extended excerpt [Contribution to The Spectator]:

Original text [as it appears in cited source. Note that the 1711 text utilizes the archaic ‘long’ (or ‘medial’) s.]:

“A Man’s firſt care ſhould be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to eſcape the cenſures of the world: if the laſt interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwiſe there cannot be greater ſatiſfaction to an honeſt mind, than to ſee thoſe approbation which it gives it ſelf ſeconded by the applauſes of the publick: A man is more ſure of his conduct, when the verdict which he paſſes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.” (p. 55)

Modern text & American spelling [Repeat Right editor]: “A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbation which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: A man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behavior is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.”

Source link: The Spectator (20 July 1711) reprint in The Works of the Late Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq., 1730, via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=AHJFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA55&dq=A+man%E2%80%99s+first+care+should

Misattribution note: The Internet Archive file page for this cited edition of Cato, A Tragedy shows a publication date of 1700. We believe this is a mistake — although no date appears on the text itself, Addison’s Cato was first published in 1712, and the actor names that appear on page four of the book are from the original cast that performed at the Drury Lane Theater in 1713.

Extended excerpt [Play – character ‘Cato’ to son ‘Portius,’ Senator ‘Lucius,’ & ‘Juba, Prince of Numidia’]:

Original text [as it appears in cited source. Note that the 1700s text includes the archaic ‘long’ (or ‘medial’) s. –(ſ)]:

“Where the great Cenſor toil’d with his own hands,

And all our frugal anceſtors were bleſs’d

In humble virtues, and a rural life

There live retir’d: pray for the peace of Rome.

Content thyſelf to be obſcurely good.

When vice prevails, and impious men bear ſway,

The poſt of honour is a private ſtation.” (p. 52)

Modern text & U.S. spelling [Repeat Right editor]:

“Where the great Censor toiled with his own hands,

And all our frugal ancestors were blessed

In humble virtues, and a rural life

There live retired: pray for the peace of Rome.

Content thyself to be obscurely good.

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,

The post of honor is a private station.”

Source link: Cato, A Tragedy (1712 | c.1713 John Wood edition) online via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/catotragedy00addi#page/52/mode/2up

Extended excerpt [Essay in The Spectator]:

“Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interest and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understandings: cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them. In short, cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.” (p. 226)

Source link: The Spectator, Vol. II (1854 Thomas Bosworth edition) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=onxTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA226&dq=Cunning+is+only+the+mimic+of+discretion,+and+may+pass+upon+weak+men+in+the+same+manner+as+vivacity+is+often+mistaken+for+wit,+and+gravity+for+wisdom

Extended excerpt  [Poem for St. Cecilia’s Day, written while Addison was a student of Oxford University. The feast for St. Cecilia – the patron saint of music – is traditionally celebrated on November 22nd.]:

Original text [as it appears in cited source. Note that the 1700s text includes the archaic ‘long’ (or ‘medial’) s. –(ſ)]:

“For ever Conſecrate the Day,

To Muſick and Cecilia;

Muſick, the greateſt Good that Mortals know,

And all of Heav’n we have below.

Muſick can noble hints impart,

Engender Fury, kindle Love;

With unſuſpected Eloquence can move,

And manage all the Man with ſecret Art.” (p. 51)

Modern text & spelling [Poetical Works of Joseph Addison, 1859]:

“For ever consecrate the day,

To music and Cecilia;

Music, the greatest good that mortals know,

And all of heaven we have below.

Music can noble hints impart,

Engender fury, kindle love;

With unsuspected eloquence can move,

And manage all the man with secret art.” (pp. 23-24)

[Modern text source: “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day” (c. 1694) stanza III; in The Poetical Works of Joseph Addison; Gay’s Fables; and Somerville’s Chase, ed. George Gilfillan, Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1859, p. 23; online via Oxford University & Google Books, books.google.com]

Source link [Original printing]: The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694 (1708 J. Tonson second edition) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=_zAJAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Miscellany+Poems+%2B+1694&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY3bPtpobaAhXKulMKHW44DEkQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Miscellany%20Poems%20%2B%201694&f=false

Source link [More modern, easier-to-read edition]: Poetical Works of Joseph Addison (1859 James Nichol edition) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=F14JAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=Addison+%2B+A+Song+for+St.+Cecilia%E2%80%99s+Day+%2B+And+all+of+heaven+we+have+below

Author misattribution – Author and publisher Richard Steele printed the first edition of The Tatler in April 1709, and was the sole author & publisher of the initial editions of the paper. His friend & former Oxford school-mate Joseph Addison later joined him and contributed to many issues, including No. 147.

Some sources have attributed the “reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body” quote to Steele. Although no author was listed for the “From my own Apartment, March 17” essay in the original print edition, The Tatler collection and The Life of Richard Steele editor George A. Aitken indicated in his footnotes immediately following the article that “the preceding portion of this paper was by Addison.” (The Tatler, Vol. III, London: Duckworth & Co., 1899, p. 178) Although it’s feasible that Aitken was incorrect, Addison’s name did appear in the byline and most sources in the 1800s also gave him credit for the quote.

Incorrect date -A hyphenated year appears in the paper heading of the original Tatler and many of the subsequent Tatler reprint volumes – including the one cited here. In the issue we cited, the date appears as 18 March 1709-10. A number of books and papers citing this quote have mistakenly translated this publication date as March 18, 1709.

The first edition of The Tatler was printed in April 1709 – which means there was no March 1709 edition. So why the confusion?  Until the end of that first year, the month & year 1709 appeared at the top of each page. From January 1710 to March 23, 1710, however,  the “1709-10” style was used – and then beginning 25 March 1710, Steele reverted back to using only the single year in the heading.

Extended excerpt [Essay in The Tatler]:

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated; by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished and confirmed. But as exercise becomes tedious and painful when we make use of it only as the means of health, so reading is apt to grow uneasy and burdensome, when we apply ourselves to it only for our improvement in virtue.” (p. 270, column 1)

Source link: The Tatler, Vol. III (date) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=dEIVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=Reading+is+to+the+mind+what+exercise+is+to+the+body+%2B+Joseph+Addison+and+Richard+Steele 

Extended excerpt: [Political essay. Title appears on The Free-Holder contents page (p. A2)]

Original text [as it appears in cited source. Note that the 1700s text includes the archaic ‘long’ (or ‘medial’) s. –(ſ)]:

“There is no greater ſign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country, This generous and publick-ſpirited paſſion has been obſerved of late years to languiſh and grow cold in this our iſland; where a party of men have made it their buſineſs to repreſent it as chimerical and romantick, to deſtroy in the minds of the people the ſenſe of national glory, and to turn into ridicule our natural and ancient allies, who are united to us by the common intereſts both of religion and policy.” (p. 25)

Modern text & spelling [The Works of Joseph Addison, Vol. III, 1854]:

“There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country, This generous and public-spirited passion has been observed of late years to languish and grow cold in this our island; where a party of men have made it their business to represent it as chimerical and romantic, to destroy in the minds of the people the sense of national glory, and to turn into ridicule our natural and ancient allies, who are united to us by the common interests both of religion and policy.”

[Modern text source: Joseph Addison, “Of the Love Which We Owe to our Country” (6 January 1716) No. 5, The Freeholder; in The Works of Joseph Addison, Vol. III , ed. George Washington Greene, New York: G.P. Putnam & Co., 1854; online via Google Books, books.google.com]

Source link: [First volume collection]: The Free-Holder, or, Political Essays (1752, 8th Bryce & Paterson edition) online via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/freeholderorpol00addigoog#page/n35/mode/2up/search/zeal

Source link [Later, easier-to-read edition]: The Works of Joseph Addison, Vol. III (1854 G.P. Putnam) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=Mpc0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=There+is+no+greater+sign+of+a+general+decay+of+virtue

Extended excerpt [Essay in The Spectator]:

“There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice. We look upon the man who gives it us as offering an affront to our understanding, and treating us like children or idiots. We consider the instruction as an implicit censure, and the zeal which any shows for our good on such an occasion, as a piece of presumption or impertinence.” (p. 275, column 1)

Source link: The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Vol. II (1845 Harper & Brothers edition) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=8FAyAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=There+is+nothing+which+we+receive+with+so+much+reluctance+as+advice

Extended excerpt [Essay in The Spectator – ellipsis not original to text; Repeat Right abbreviated excerpt]:

“I consider a human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties, until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which without such helps are never able to make their appearance.

[…] The figure is in the stone, the sculptor only finds it. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, or the hero, the wise, the good, or the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred, and have brought to light.”

(p. 281, column 1)

Source link: The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index (1826 Samuel Marks edition) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=bw1EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA281&dq=What+sculpture+is+to+a+block+of+marble,+education+is+to+a+human+soul