not been closed by affectation, by a natural or an acquired ftupidity. It feems, indeed, to be a part of the contemptible vanity which characterizes the age, to laugh at public fpectacles when others are ferious, and to be ferious when others laugh. "Who, indeed," fays the fine bred lady, "would be fincerely affected by any thing faid or done by the low creatures on the "ftage?"

Some fpectators, on the other hand, lofe all the effect of the piece by attending to the identical men and women who act, rather than to the characters which they represent. They alfo admire Mr. or Mrs. fuch an one's coat, gown, cap, fhoe, leg, or hand, but forget the hero and the heroine, the poet, and the poem.

The tafte for ridicule, which greatly prevails in a mean, selfish, debauched, and trifling age, contributes to prevent the genuine effect of Tragedy. Great laughers are feldom fufceptible of deep or ferious impreffions. While the dead lie fcattered on the ftage, and every thing is prefented to the view which ought to excite pity and terror, the joker diffipates the fweet forrow of fympathy by the introduction of a ludicrous idea. Ridicule, indeed, feems to become a weapon in the hands of the wicked, deftructive of tafte, feeling, morality, and religion.

The addition of a ludicrous epilogue, a farce, pantomime entertainment, and of dances between the acts, has often been lamented as deftructive of the effects of the finest tragedy. It is true, that they who live to please, muft please in order to live; and therefore the players and their managers are not culpable. They muft not only provide manly amufements for men, but childish diverfions for children and fchool-boys. Thefe entertainments have, indeed, often that ingenuity and drollery in them, which may, at a proper feafon, relax the moft rigid philofophy. I cenfure not the things themselves, but the time of their introduction. After the foul has been deeply impreffed with ierious and virtuous fentiments, it is furely lamentable, that every mark fhould be effaced by harlequins and buffoons. It must be remembered, that I am fpeaking only of the moral effects of the drama,

and

and I believe every one will agree, that these would be more fuccessfully produced, if the entertainment, as it is called by way of eminence, preceded the Tragedy. The fpectator would then retire to his pillow with his fancy full of fine poetic images, and his heart glowing with every elevated idea of moral rectitude. now, his feelings are so trifled with and tantalized, that at laft he grows callous to the tendereft pathos, and attends the theatre merely as a critic in acting, instead of an interested partaker in the scenes which país in re

view.

But

In times, when manly minds are neceffary to fave a finking empire, and retard the decline of a degenerating people, every mode of improving the hearts of the community at large, in the serious and feverer virtues, ought to be applied with avidity. The Theatre opens a fine fchool for the accomplishment of this end; and it would certainly contribute greatly to accelerate the general improvement, if there were lefs finging, dancing, and buffoonery, and more Tragedy. But fome great man, by which epithet I mean, in this place, a titled and fashionable man, muft fet the example of admiring it, or elfe all the mufes themselves might rack their inventions in compofing the melancholy tale, with no other effect than that of diffufing fleep or smiles throughout Pit, Box, and Gallery.

No. CXXIV. ON THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS, AS A SUBJECT OF CONVERSATION, ON THE STATE OF LITERATURE.

IT

T is a mark of the focial and public fpirit of this nation, that there is fcarcely a member of it who does not beftow a very confiderable portion of his. time and thoughts in ftudying its political welfare, its intereft, and its honour. Though this general taste for politics, from the higheft to the lowest orders of the people, has afforded fubjects for comic ridicule, yet

I cannot

I cannot help confidering it both as a proof of uncommon liberality, and as one of the firmeft fupports of civil liberty. It kindles and keeps alive an ardent love of freedom. It has hitherto preferved that glorious gift of God from the rude hand of tyranny, and tends, perhaps, more than any other cause, to communicate the noble fire of true patriotifm to the bofoms of pofterity. While we watch vigilantly over every political measure, and communicate an alarm through the empire, with a speed almost equal to the fhock of electricity, there will be no danger left a king should establish despotism, even though he were to invade the rights of his people at the head of his ftanding army.

But as zeal without knowledge is fubverfive of the purpose which it means to promote; it becomes a true friend to his country to endeavour to unite with the love of liberty, the love of knowledge. It unfortunately happens, that political fubjects are of fo warm and animating a nature, that they not only appear to intereft, in a very high degree, but to engross the attention. The newspapers form the whole library of the politician, the coffee-houfe is his fchool, and he prefers the Gazette, and an acrimonious pamphlet, for or against the miniftry, to all that was ever written by a Homer, or difcovered by a Newton.

To be a competent judge either of political measures or events, it is neceffary to poffefs an enlightened understanding, and the liberal fpirit of philofophy; it is neceffary to have read hiftory, and to have formed right ideas of the nature of man and of civil fociety. But I know not how it happens, the moft ignorant and paffionate are apt to be the most decifive in delivering their fentiments on the very complicated fubjects of political controverfy. A man, whofe education never extended beyond writing and the four rules, will determine at once, and with the most authoritative air, fuch questions as would perplex the wifeft statesman adorned with all human learning, and affifted by the experience and advice of the most cultivated perfons in the nation. Even gentlemen, according to the common acceptation of that title, or thofe who have fortunes, and have received the common instruction

of

of the times, are seldom able to judge with propriety in politics, though they are ufually inclined to dictate with paffion. Is it poffible that, from having learnt only the first elements of Latin and French, and the arts of dancing, fencing, and fiddling, in perfection, a man Thould be qualified, I do not fay to fit as a Senator, but to expatiate, with fufficient judgment and intelligence, on the propriety and nature of any public tranfaction, or fyftem of government? But he is worth an eftate of a thousand a year, and therefore, though all his other merit, in kind and degree, may be like that of a master of the ceremonies, or that of a skilful groom and whipper in, he thinks he has a right to give law to the neighbourhood in political converfation. His ideas are confined to narrow limits; and as his patriotifm is for the most part fpite, fo his fupport of a miniftry is, in fome refpects, felf-intereft. It must be fo; for a man, whofe mind is not enlarged and cultivated, cannot entertain fo liberal a fyftem of opinions as thofe of real patriotism,

But even, among perfons whofe minds are fufficiently improved to diftinguish and purfue the good of man and of fociety, independently either of paffion or of private advantage, the rage for politics often proceeds too far, and abforbs all other objects. In vain does the hand of art prefent the picture or repeat the melody of mufic; for the eye is blind, the ear is deaf to all but the news and the newspaper. Poetry, philology, elegant and polite letters, in all their ramifications, difplay their alluring charms in vain to him, whofe head and heart ftill vibrate with the harsh and dif cordant founds of a political difpute at the tavern. Those books, whofe tendency is only to promote elegant pleafures or advance fcience, which flatter no party, and gratify no malignant paffion, are fuffered to fall into oblivion; while a pamphlet, which efpoufes the caufe of any political men or measures, however inconfiderable its literary merit, is extolled as one of the firft productions of modern literature. But meagre is the food furnished to the mind of man by the declamation of a party bigot. From a tafte for trash, and a difrelish of the wholefome food of the mind, and from

the

the confequent neglect of folid learning, mere politicians are prevented from receiving valuable improvement; and the community, together with literature, is at laft deeply injured. For when learning is little refpected, it will naturally decline; and that the mental darkness confequent on its decline, leads to the establishment of defpotifm, every one who has furveyed the pictures of mankind, as pourtrayed by the pencil of hiftory, will immediately acknowledge. What did Athens and Rome retain of their antient dignity when their learning and their arts were no more? That the light of learning fhould ever again be extinguished, may appear a vifionary idea to an Englishman; but fo. it did to a Roman, in the days of Cicero. Notwithstanding the multiplication of books by the art of printing, both they, and all value for them, may vanifh, together with the power of understanding them, if the fury of politics fhould occafion a contempt for letters and for education, and fhould convert the leaders of a people into Goths and Vandals.

He who would add an elegance to politics, and diftinguish his converfation on the fubject from the vociferation of porters in an alehoufe, fhould infpect the finished pieces of antiquity, and learn to view public acts and counfels in the light in which they appeared to those whom the world has long confidered as fome of the beft and politeft teachers of political wif dom. If he poffeffes not tafte enough to relifh the works of poetical imagination, let him confine himself to fuch authors as Thucydides and Xenophon, Polybius and Plutarch, Livy and Salluft. Politics will affume new grace by communicating with hiftory and philofophy; and political converfation, inftead of a vague, paffionate, and declamatory effufion of undigefted ideas, will become a most liberal exercise of the faculties, and form a mental banquet, at which the beft and wifest of mankind might indulge their finer appetites with infatiable avidity. What can conftitute a more rational object of contemplation than the noble fabric of fociety, civilized by arts, letters, and religion? What can better employ our fagacity, than to devife modes for its improvement and preservation? VOL. II.

I

Not