STUDY XIII. 155 



our pride lays hold of that, and finds a determi- 

 nation to it from the manners of the World, and 

 from our very education, which from infancy fug- 

 gefts the neceffity of this perfonal preference. 



Our public fpeâracles fnrther concur toward the 

 incrcafe of the fpirit of divifion among us. Our 

 mofl celebrated comedies ufuaily reprefent tutors 

 cozened by their pupils, fathers by their children, 

 hufbands by their wives, matters by their fervants. 

 The (hows of the populace exhibit nearly the fame 

 pi(5bures ; and, as if they were not already fufficiently 

 difpofed to irregularity, they are prefented with 

 fcenes of intoxication, of lewdnefs, of robbery, of 

 conftables drubbed : thefe inftrud them to under- 

 value, at once, morals and magiftrates. Speftacles 

 draw together the bodies of the citizens, and alie- 

 nate their minds. 



Comedy, we are told, cures vice by the power 

 of ridicule ; cajiigat ridendo mores. This adage is 

 equally falfe with many others, which are made 

 the bafis of our morality. Comedy teaches us to 

 laugh at another, and nothing more. No one fays, 

 when the reprefentation is over, the portrait of this 

 mifer has a ftrong refemblance of myfelf ; but every 

 one, inftantly difcerns in it the image and likenefs 

 of his neighbour. It is long fince Horace made 

 this remark. But, on the fuppofition, that a man 



fliould 



