The rise of the two political parties, the Whig and the Tory, goes back to the reign of Charles. But in the early 18th century, the party spirit was more rampant than ever before. Everyone was either a Whig or a Tory. Addison tried his best to humanize the age, and calm polity passions through his articles in the spectator.
Both parties tried to secure the help of men of literary ability, and the authors now acquired an importance and an influence which they had never enjoyed before. Gradually, they because independent of the patronage of the rich and powerful. “It was the golden age of political pamphleteering and the writers made the most of it”. The puritans looked down upon the upper classes as immoral, and the courtiers called the puritans hypocrites.