’ 
* 
" tronage. 
1811.] 
of natur. Tiow can they seek after the 
wonderous secrets of his works: w*® 
believe him not-to be or know him not; 
or liull care to know him? so’ that they 
thave a-voluble tong: it is sufficient for 
them, unto title and to grace ther pompe. 
They should hurt ther tender hands with 
eools, if they should seartch the secrets 
of nature: it sufficeth them to wast and 
consume all ther time and adg in caui- 
Jations and contentions in words. O! 
blind mortall men! do we not know that 
we ought rather to seek the truth of the 
cause, then the ornament of- speatch? 
This is most true, nothing is so.contrary 
to the rules of true philosophie, as that 
wh savoureth of unioyntedness and 
hauti proud speatch ;’ and for this cause 
Philosophi presents herself naked ap- 
parent on all parts; she caryeth all under 
the eyes subject to judgment; she shewes 
her self playnly. Cicero doth not re- 
‘guier elequens in a philosopher, mutch 
Jes Celsus in phisick: but that it may 
manyfest the truth of things and excel- 
tencies of doctrine, it isour duties rather 
- to have our minds well composed, then 
our words curiosly adorned: to provide 
rather that reason err not, then speatch ; 
and yet elequens, a gift of God given by 
the same spirit that prophesis healing, 
and the gift of tongs are, but it must be 
but the handmayd of truth. 
3 — 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
4 SIR, 
-F all the labours incident to the 
y editor of a newspaper, there is 
nous that more interests the public, or 
for the due execution of which he ought 
to be more strictly responsible, than dra- 
matic-and theatrical criticism. In the 
détails of news and politics, he is obliged, 
4 some respect, to adhere to accounts 
received; and his opinions and obser- 
vations are universally known not to be 
his own, but those of the party under 
whose banners he is enlisted. If he an- 
nounce falsehoods, retail absurdities, or 
reason extravagantly, all is set down to 
this employers, whom it is‘perfectly un- 
slerstood he must obey, or lose their pa- 
It is also notorious, that these 
pitrons themselves occasionally con- 
descend to write, and that, not being 
-broken into. the trammels of newspaper 
composition, their productions are often 
erude and absurd; but they are sacred, 
tnd dare not be touched by the profane 
hhand of their servile editor, whose, bu- 
$iness is only to extol to the skies, ‘in 
Which he is assisted by the writer’s poe 
On Theatrical Criticism. 
—we tl 
$e 
litical friends. The public, however, are 
little influenced by either these rhap- 
sodies, or those of the cditor himself. 
Almost every man attaches himself to 
one party or other; and as the most pre- 
posterous statements and dogmas will be 
swallowed, if of the favorite side; so, if 
an angel were tu write on the reverse, 
his facts, arguments, and cloquence, 
would be unavailing. A reader of the 
Post or Courier? will pot be convinced 
by the statements, however ingenious, 
of the Chronicle or Statesman; nor will 
tne boldest assertions of the former jour- 
nals, find credence with the admirers of 
the latter, 
But, although, as already observed, 
every man thinks decidedly with the 
party he has espoused, yet, unless he be’ 
a professed politician, or personally in- 
terested in the success of his party, he,is’ 
apt to lose arelish for the everlasting rou- 
tine of political discussion: when he 
takes a newspaper into. his hand, he 
rather looks for something toamuse him, 
than the repetition of what has become 
like a course of physic; and, among the 
first of such articles, he eagerly examines 
the theatrical intelligence. The reports 
of a new play, or a new performer, ine 
terest him more than those of an en- 
gagement in Spain or Portugal, or of a 
debate in the House of Lords or Com- 
mons. Such being the case, it were to 
be wished that editors should be a little 
more circumspect; and, I may be per- 
mitted to add, alittle more candid, im-~ 
partial, and adherent to truth, than they 
frequently are. I do not dispute that 
they may*be, in some degree, subser- 
vient to a manager, or that they may be 
influenced by or against an author ora 
‘performer; but here they are not so ticd 
down, but if they chuse they may have a 
will and opinion of their own, the due 
and honest exercise of which is of mucli 
importance, as they are, in fact, the 
Supreme dictators of the taste of the 
town. 
‘The theatre is divided into three com- 
partments, pit, boxes, and galleries: but 
as in politics we have often heard of an 
influence behind the throne, greater than 
the throne itself; so here, besides the 
constitutional divisions of the audience, 
there is a fourth description of visitors, 
paramount to al! the rest. They in ges 
neral seat themselves snugly in. the 
boxes; but, on the occasion of a new pers 
formance, they petvade the whole house, 
to give the wreater force to their dicta. 
‘Lhese are editors and reporters of news« 
papers, 
wi it 
