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If the English ftage were under the fame regulations the Athenians was formerly, it would have the fame effect that had, in recommending the religion, the government, and public worship of its country. Were our plays fubject to proper infpections and limitations, we might not only pafs away feveral of our vacant hours in the highest entertainment; but fhould always rife from them wifer and better than we fat down to them.

It is one of the most unaccountable things in our age,、 that the lewdnefs of our theatre fhould be fo much complained of, fo well expofed, and fo little redreffed. It is to be hoped, that fome time or other we may be at leifure to restrain the licentioufnefs of the theatre, and make it contribute its affiftance to the advancement of morality, and to the reformation of the age. As matters ftand at prefent, multitudes are fhut out from this noble diverfion, by reafon of thofe abufes and corruptions that accompany it. A father is often afraid that his daughter fhould be ruined by thofe entertainments, which were invented for the accomplishment and refining of human nature. The Athenian and Roman plays were written with fuch a regard to morality, that Socrates used to frequent the one, and Cicero the other.

It happened once indeed, that Cato dropped into the Roman theatre, when the Floralia were to be reprefented and as in that performance, which was a kind of religious ceremony, there were feveral indecent parts to be acted, the people refused to see them whilft Cato was prefent. Martial on this hint made the following epigram, which we muft fuppofe was applied to fome grave friend of his, that had been accidentally prefent at fome fuch entertainment,

Noffes jocofa dulce cùm facrum Flore,
Feftofque lufus, & licentiam vulgi,
Cur in theatrum, Cato fevere, venisti?
An ideo tantùm veneras, ut exires?

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Epig. 1. 1. 1.

Why doft thou come, great cenfor of thy age,
To fee the loofe diverfions of the ftage?

VOL. VI.

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With awful countenance and brow fevere,

What in the name of goodness doft thou here ?
See the mixt croud! how giddy, lewd and vain ?
D'd thou come in but to go out again ?'

An accident of this nature might happen once in an age among the Greeks and Romans; but they were too wife and good to let the conftant nightly entertainment be of fuch a nature, that people of the most sense and virtue could not be at it. Whatever vices are reprefented upon the stage, they ought to be fo marked and branded by the poet, as not to appear either laubable or amiable in the perfon who is tainted with them. But if we look into the English comedies above-mentioned, we should think they were formed upon a quite contrary maxim, and that this rule, though it held good upon the heathen ftage, was not to be regarded in christian theatres. There is another rule likewife, which was obferved by authors of antiquity, and which thefe modern geniufes have no regard to, and that was rever to choose an improper fubject for ridicule. Now a fubject is improper for ridicule, if it is apt to ftir up horror and commiferation rather than laughter. For this reafon, we do not find any comedy, in fo polite an author as Terence, raifed upon the violations of the marriage bed. The falfehood of the wife or hufband has given occafion to noble tragedies, but a Scipio or a Lelius would have looked upon inceft or murder to have been as proper fubjects for comedy. On the contrary, cuckoldom is the bafis of most of our modern plays. If an alderman appears upon the stage, you may he fure it is in order to be cuckolded. An hufband that is a little grave or elderly, generally meets with the fame fate. Knights and baronets, country fquires, and justices of the quorum, come up to town for no other purpofe. I have feen poor Dogget cuckolded in all thefe capacities. In fhort, our English writers are as frequently fevere upon this innocent unhappy creature, commonly known by the name of a cuckold, as the ancient comic writers were upon an eating parafite, or a vain-glorious foldier.

At the fame time the poet fo contrives matters that the two criminals are the favourites of the audience. We fit ftill, and with well to them through the whole play, are pleased when they meet with proper opportunities, and out of humour when they are difappointed. The truth of it is, the accomplished gentleman upon the English ftage, is the perfon that is familiar with other mens wives, and indifferent to his own; as the fine woman is generally a compofition of fprightlinefs and falfehood. I do not know whether it proceeds from barrenness of invention, depravation of manners, or ignorance of mankind, but I have often wondered that our ordinary poets cannot frame to themfelves the idea of a fine man who is not a whoremafter, or of a fine woman that is not a jilt.

I have fometimes thought of compiling a fyftem of ethics out of the writings of thofe corrupt poets, under the title of Stage Morality. But I have been diverted from this thought by a project which has been executed by an ingenious gentleman of my acquaintance. He has compofed, it fees, the hiftory of a young fellow, who has taken all his notions of the world from the stage, and who has directed himself in every circumftance of his life and converfation, by the maxins and examples of the fine gentleman in English comedies. If I can prevail upon him to give me a copy of this new fashioned novel, I will beftow on it a place in my works, and question not but it may have as good an effect upon the drama, as Don Quixote had upon romance.

I 2

N° 447.

Saturday, August 2.

φημὶ πολυχρονίην μελέτην ἔμεναι, φίλε· καὶ δὴ
Ταύτην ἀνθρώποισι τελευτῶσαν φύσιν εἶναι·

Long exercise, my friend, inures the mind
And what we once diflik'd we pleasing find.

THERE is not a common faying which has a bet

ter turn of fenfe in it, than what we often hear in the mouths of the vulgar, that custom is a fecond nature. It is indeed able to form the man anew, and to give him inclinations and capacities altogether different from thofe he was born with. Dr. Plot, in his hiftory of Staffordshire, tells us of an idiot that chancing to live within the found of a clock, and always amusing himself with counting the hour of the day whenever the clock ftruck, the clock being fpoiled by fome accident, the idiot continued to ftrike and count the hour without the help of it, in the fame manner as he had done when it was intire. Though I dare not vouch for the truth of this ftory, it is very certain that custom has a mechanical effect upon the body, at the fame time that it has a very extraordinary influence upon the mind.

I fhall in this paper confider one very remarkable effect which custom has upon human nature, and which, if rightly obferved, may lead us into very useful rules of life. What I fhall here take notice of in cuftom, is its wonderful efficacy in making every thing pleasant to us. A perfon who is addicted to play or gaming, though he took but little delight in it at firft, by degrees contracts fo strong an inclination towards it, and gives himself up fo intirely to it, that it feems the only end of his being. The love of a retired or bufy life will grow upon a man infenfibly, as he is converfant in the one or the other, till he is utterly unqualified for relishing that to which he has been for fome time difufed. Nay, a man may finoke, or drink, or take fnuff, till he is unable to

107 pafs away his time without it; not to mention how our delight in any particular ftudy, art, or fcience, rifes and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus what was at first an exercise, becomes at length an entertainment. Our employments are changed into our diverfions. The mind grows fond of those actions fhe is accustomed to, and is drawn with reluctancy from thofe paths in which the has used to walk.

Not only fuch actions as were at first indifferent to us, but even fuch as were painful, will, by cuftom and practice, become pleasant. Sir Francis Bacon obferves in his natural philosophy, that our taste is never pleafed better than with those things which at first created a difguft in it. He gives particular inftances of claret, coffee, and other liquors, which the palate feldom approves upon the first tafte; but when it has once got a relish of them, generally retains it for life. The mind is conftituted after the fame manner, and after having habituated herself to any particular exercife or employment, not only lofes her firft averfion towards it, but conceives a certain fondness and affection for it. I have heard ore of the greatest geniufes this age has produced, who had been trained up in all the polite ftudies of antiquity, affure me, upon his being obliged to fearch into feveral rolls and records, that notwithttanding fuch an employment was at first very dry and irkfome to him, he at last took an incredible pleasure in it, and preferred it even to the reading of Virgil or Cicero. The reader will obferve, that I have not here confidered custom as it makes things eafy, but as it renders them delightful; and though others have often made the fame reflections, it is poffible they may not have drawn thofe ufes from it, with which I intend to fill the remaining part of this paper.

If we confider attentively this property of human nature, it may inftruct us in very fine moralities. In the first place, I would have no man difcouraged with the t kind of life or feries' of action, in which the choice of others, or his own neceffities, may have engaged him. It may perhaps be very difagreeable to him at first; but ufe and application will certainly render it not only lefs. painful, but pleafing and fatisfactory.

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