The Aims of the Spectator

Since I have raised to myself so great an audience, I shall spare no pains to make their instruction agreeable, and their diversion useful. For which reasons I shall endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my readers may, if possible, both ways find their account in the speculation of the day. Fromjoozone.com.

And to the end that their virtue and discretion may not be short, transient, intermitting starts of thought, I have resolved to refresh their memories from day to day, till I have recovered them out of that desperate state of vice and folly into which the age is fallen. The mind that lies fallow but a single day, sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous culture. It was said of Socrates that he brought Philosophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that I have brought Philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses.

----Editor is Addison

《旁观者报》宗旨作文地带提供参考翻译：

既然本报已吸引了大量读者，我将不辞辛劳，使他们受到令人满意的教育，使他们的消遣富有实际意义。为了这一点，我将努力使道德带有智慧的生气，使智慧受到道德的约束。那样一来，我的读者们就有可能通过对一天的思索得到双重的受益。此外，他们的德行和审慎就不会是浅陋、短暂和不连贯的冲动念头了。我已决定一天一天更新他们的记忆，把他们从这个时代所陷入的邪恶、愚昧的深渊里拯救出来。人的思想一旦休耕，就会产生蠢笨的杂念，只有靠不断勤勉的耕作才能将之摒除。人们说苏格拉底把哲学从天堂带到了人间；我也野心勃勃，希望有一天人们会说我把哲学从秘室、图书馆、学校和学院带到了俱乐部、集会、茶桌和咖啡馆。