The Spectator on Hiroshima

Here - as suggested by commenter 'Cogito Ergosum' - is the Spectator's initial reaction to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945:

A crisis of civilisation
The Spectator leading article, August 10, 1945

In Mr. Churchill's statement about the atomic bomb issued by Mr. Attlee on Sunday exultation at having anticipted the enemy gave way to awe.  Mr. Churchill spoke of this "revelation of the secrets of Nature" as one "long mercifully withheld from man." So terrific a power of destruction is now known to be in the hands of the Allies that...

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The literature of 1828, No.1

An immortal poem from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1828:

Work Without Hope

ALL Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair - 
The bees are stirring – birds are on the wing -
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

Yet will I ken banks where Amaranths blow,
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye Amaranths! bloom for whom ye may.
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!
With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll:
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.

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Bringing philosophy to the coffee-houses

I've written before of how the 1711 incarnation of The Spectator “inspired and informed” the 1828 version. So you can be sure that a snappy Joseph Addison article entitled “The Aim of The Spectator” still has a whole lot of relevance today. (Although we've certainly moved on from thinking that “the right adjustment of the hair” is the “principal enjoyment” of women's lives!)  Here it is in its entirety:

The Aim of The Spectator
by Joseph Addison

It is with much satisfaction that I hear this great city inquiring day

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The very beginning

Here – for posterity's sake – is the very first paragraph of the very first issue of The Spectator. The date of publication was 5th July, 1828:

The principal object of a Newspaper is to convey intelligence. It is proposed in the SPECTATOR to give this, the first and most prominent place, to a report of all the leading occurrences of the week. In this department, the reader may always expect a summary account of every public proceeding, or transaction of interest, whether the scene may lie at home or abroad, that has taken place within the seven days preceding the termination of our labours; which, we wish it to be remarked, close of Saturday at midnight.

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Brown vs Blair - a decade ago

Looking through the archives last week, the cover article of the 17th January 1998 issue caught my eye – I've posted it below. It details the lengths Gordon Brown would go to to discredit and undermine Tony Blair, even back then. Well worth a read, if only for the classic, concluding remark – proof, if proof were needed, that The Spectator doesn't always get it right...

For 'John Brown' read Gordon Brown
Siôn Simon, The Spectator, 17th January, 1998

'How refreshing that it should be Gordon, not Charlie, who's gone completely off

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