216 The Dramatic Monopoly. [FEE 



procured. Plays so far fit for spectacle, as to agree with the size o. 

 these theatres, and yet fit to be considered high literary efforts, are, to 

 be sure, not easily produced ; but, in the main, this cry is cant, mere 

 cant, and those who use it are fully aware that it is so. In a free 

 market, would Rienzi and Foscari have each lain upon the shelf for 

 more than four years, and the talents of their authoress been cast by 

 neglect into contributing to annuals, and the editing of American 

 stories ? How long did Alfred remain unrepresented ? In the feverish 

 excitement which attends the career of one play towards its representa- 

 tion, is the mind left calm enough to proceed to the creation of others ? 

 Are poets proverbially so philosophic ? 



Look at the past and the present, reason from experience or from 

 common sense, employ certain knowledge or uncertain speculation, and 

 all must agree with us in denouncing the present system as a huge 

 burking-machine of dramatic genius. It is a Juggernaut, senseless 

 itself, before which life falls prostrate, and is extinguished. In the name 

 of civilization, in the name of honesty, in the name of those imprescript- 

 ible rights of mind, which Nature and Providence have given down 

 with it ! 



Our limits warn us that we must close. The view of the matter, as 

 it concerns the public especially hints for the practical settlement of the 

 question some words on the rights of vested wrongs, and other points 

 which claim our attention, may be offered hereafter. 



BREVITIES. 



PUBLIC men cannot always go direct to their object, as the crow flies. 

 It is but fair to make allowances for the thick medium in which they 

 act, and the courtly windings they are often compelled to follow. 



A wise and benevolent man may reasonably wish for children, if able 

 to maintain them ; but perhaps he is neither very wise nor very benevo- 

 lent if he suffers his deprivation to make him unhappy. What is it we 

 admire or find interesting in children ? Their beauty, innocence, help- 

 lessness, cheerfulness, simplicity ; but he is a selfish sot who cannot 

 appreciate those qualities in the offspring of others as well as in his own; 

 and who, having the power, wants the inclination to cherish and attract 

 them to him. 



" Former," " latter," and " namely," are three verbal dowdies the 

 anti-graces of diction, who still, by prescriptive right, are sometimes 

 found in good society. 



We feel astonished that torture should ever have been used by ra- 

 tional beings, as the means of getting at truth ; but, no doubt, when it 

 was abolished, many admirers of the good old times thought the innova- 

 tion exceedingly dangerous. In like manner our posterity will scarcely 

 believe that persons were allowed to vote away the public money, as 

 representatives of the people, who literally had no constituents at all, 

 and purchased their seats in Parliament as regularly as their chairs for 

 domestic purposes. 



The anger of a generous man is effectually disarmed by a little gentle- 

 ness on the part of its object as a bread and milk poultice is sufficient 

 to allay a casual inflammation in a healthy frame. 



