In addition to this obvious sort of superficial imitation, there are many indications that L'Estrange's _Observator_ had a more permanent influence on posterity. It has been suggested that the periodical specializing in query and answer between reader and editor, which was initiated by John Dunton's _Athenian Mercury_ and which we still have today, may have been inspired by the _Observator's_ habitual retorts to opponents.[7] James Sutherland isolates in Defoe certain qualities of prose style which he attributes to Defoe's extensive reading of L'Estrange; and he sees L'Estrange's natural colloquial manner as setting a pattern for journalists who followed him.[8] Far-fetched as it may seem at first glance, even Addison's _Spectator_ shows a certain similarity to the _Observator_. Although the manner, tone, language, and political views of the two are antithetical, the _Spectator's_ peculiar blend of moralizing and diversion is reminiscent of L'Estrange's work. In both papers we notice a serious didactic purpose tempered by literary techniques and imaginative handling of material. Decades before Addison's famous credo--"to make their Instruction Agreeable, and their Diversion useful ... to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality"[9]--L'Estrange had formulated a similar theory: _Obs._: Where there has been Any thing of That which you call Raillery, or Farce; It has amounted to no more then a Speaking to the Common People in their Own Way.... He that Talks Dry Reason to them, does as good as treat 'em in an Unknown Tongue; and there's no Other way of Conveying the True Sense, & Notion of Things, either to their Affections, or to their Understandings, then by the Palate.... (II, No. 15) And as a link between L'Estrange and Addison we have Defoe's analogous promise in "the Introduction" to the _Review_: "After our Serious Matters are over, we shall at the end of every Paper, Present you with a little Diversion, as any thing occurs to make the World Merry."[10] These notions rest, of course, on the ancient _dulce et utile_, though modified in various ways in each of the three papers to suit the temperaments of their writers, the tastes of their mass-audiences, and different times. It is perhaps not irresponsible, then, to say that the synonymous titles of Addison's and L'Estrange's periodicals symbolize an affinity of purpose and technique. Indeed, the _Observator_ can, in many ways, be considered a rather crude and primitive ancestor of the _Spectator_.[11]