3+ On the T H E A T R E. 
fo that the buftnefs is already in a happy train, and might be 
very eaftly accomplifhed. 
You will eaftly underftand that I am now pleading for the 
theatre, the intereft of which I have much at heart. As to 
what regards the lives of moft players, it is not my buftnefs to 
enquire ; but if, in general, the playhoufe is not dedicated to 
diana, yet there are fome as chafte and religious people on the 
ftage of the theatre, as on the ftage of the world. Upon the 
principle I now recommend, there would be no rake on the 
ftage, or he would be fo little countenanced by the poet, as hard - 
ly to dare to be fo off of it. Adtors would be habituated to 
fpeculative virtue, from the parts they performed ; and from 
thence, fome of them would become practical philofophers, and 
fhining examples, and bf. the characters they moft coveted to 
APPEAR in. 
If nothing was seen or heard offenftve to the chafte or pi- 
ous, corrupt as we are in many inftances, theatres would not 
be lefs frequented than they are. The profeftion of a player 
would receive a dignity which it is far from having now. Gen- 
tlemen of education might then become adtors, without any of 
thofe reserves and exceptions which prevail under the pre- 
fent eftablifhment of the theatre ; confequently the difficult and 
laborious fcience of adling, would be efteemed worthy, in pro- 
portion to its utility, and be carried to a much greater height 
of improvement than it now is. 
As virtue would be thus reprefented to us in more amiable 
colors ; inftead of going from the playhouse to the brothel, 
the 
