… Theorists disagreed about the fundamental psychology underlying politeness: whether it embodied a human capacity for virtue or it was a sophisticated expression of human egoism. In either case, the attractiveness of politeness grew out of … On the one hand, the art of pleasing might be seen as a form of generosity and kindness: a version of social virtue. On the other hand, the art of social pleasing might be seen as a tool of a demanding self, which, in order to … egoism. 2 However, a number of Englishmen, Mandeville’s exact contemporaries, sought to anchor politeness in real virtue. In their periodicals , the Tatler (1709-1711) and the Spectator (1711-1712, 1714), Richard Steele (1672-1729) and …