… sophisticated expressions of this was Joseph Addison ’s in The Spectator . Addison suggested that the purpose of his new periodical was to urbanise moral philosophy: ‘to bring Philosophy out of Closets and Libraries, Schools and Colleges, to … Spectator, No 10, March 12 1711. Addison conceived of the tea-table as a form of sociability at which conversation and periodical reading, as well as tea, were central. Thirteen further essays (Nos 92, 140, 158, 212, 216, 246, 276, 300, …