… in point, around which the two sexes gathered, read periodical essays together, which provided subject matter to polite conversation. Periodicals, however, also staged new forms of sociability in their columns, constructing communities of … one which, thanks to their essays, combined entertainment and moral didacticism. It included literary and aesthetic conversation, as opposed to gossip. The Free-Thinker (1718-1721), a bi-weekly essay paper coedited by the poet … popularised the Cartesian and Lockean philosophies, claiming that they constituted the core principles of polite conversation understood as sociability. 2 . The Free-Thinker n° 147 (London, 1722), vol. 3, p. 308. The move was in …