60 Toetnj. [Chap. XX. 



signalised themselves by discarding grossly sen- 

 sual descriptions and indecent expressions from 

 English Tragedy, were Mr. Rowe and Mr. Addi- 

 son ; and the like service was rendered to Comedy 

 by sir Richard Steele, and some who immediately 

 succeeded him. 



But though the dramatic productions of the 

 eighteenth century are in general more decent^ 

 and much less offensive in the exhibition of coarse, 

 licentiousness, many of them may be charged with 

 a fault, which, though less obvious, is perhaps 

 more mischievous in its tendency. This is, the 

 artful interweaving of false principles in religion 

 and morals with the whole structure of their fable 

 and sentiments. Theatrical exhibitions, as well 

 as Novels, have been employed to insinuate the 

 poison of corrupt opinions, decorated and con- 

 cealed, into unsuspecting minds. A splendid hero 

 is made to inculcate and recommend the most 

 hateful principles ; and an ingeniously contrived 

 series of incidents to prepossess the mind in favour 

 of vice. This, considered as a system deliberately 

 instituted for the purpose of operating on public 

 opinion, it is believed is peculiar to the eighteenth 

 century. Both Great Britain and France have 

 given birth to a few dramatic productions formed 

 on this plan ; but they have still niore abounded 

 in Germanyv 



Another peculiarit}^ of modern dramatic pro- 

 ductions, especially of the tragic kind, is, that 

 they abound more in love than the ancient mo- 

 dels. In the ancient tragedies this subject was 

 rarely mentioned or alluded to : still more seldom 

 did any of them turn upon it. On the contrary. 



