‘ too often marked by negiect, 
- 
‘libraries of the learned, the liberal, 
36 _ State of the Manners, &c. of the Metropolis of England. [Auguft 1, 
tudes of authors, its diurnal publications, 
and its {cenes of dramatic ordeal, all con- 
tribute to the important tafk of enlarging 
and embellifhing the world of letters . The 
prefs daily teems with works. of genius, 
and the public eye is ever on the watch 
for productions cof every {pecies, calcu- 
lated either to amule, inftrud,. aftonith, 
or enlighten. 
vapid writers are multitudinous: but the 
judgment of) the public turns with difeuk 
from the dull, the vain, the feeble, ‘and 
the Icentious feribler ; the puny no- 
velift, who drefles the coarfe, fatire of ma- 
levolence in the borrowed trappings of 
other authors; the vapid rhymefer, who 
verfifies without evincing even the fhadow 
of poetic infpiration; and the traveller, 
who never journeyed bevond the confines 
of his native country :—while it fofters, 
and draws forth the genuine, unfophilti- 
cated effulions of genius, learning, and- 
philofephy. 
The metropolis prefents fuch an exten- 
five field for the difplay of talents, that 
the obferver is bewildered where to choofe 
its famples of fuperi or excellence. Lite- 
rature, in all its branches, has claimed 
‘the laurel; and the diftin€tions of fame 
have not been confined either to rank, fex, 
or profeffion. . Yet the tree of knowledge 
has flourifhed fpontaneoufly ; for patrop- 
age has been frigid; and the lot of the 
fons and daughters of the Mufes has been 
er chec- 
quered by calamity... Men and women of 
{uperior literary endowments. are rarely 
feen at-the tables of the wealthy and en- 
nobled. The moft obfcure habitations 
kave known no chearing ray, excepting 
that which mental luftre has diffuled ; and 
even cur prifons. have been illumined by 
the brilliancy of talents which would have 
foread ihe brighteit radiance round the 
throne oc Britain. 
Works of extenfive thought and philo- 
fophical refearch have been “watched with 
more malevolence than juftice. Political 
reftiictions have been enforced, to warp: 
the public tafte; and the piganiic wings 
of Reafon have, at times, been paralyzed 
by their augmenting feverity.. Still the 
and 
the philanthropic, are open to the works of 
thole who promote that univerfal good, ori- 
ginating in expanfion of mind ; and the pro- 
duétions of tome living authors, both male 
and female, will in future ages embellifh 
the literary annals of the Britifh empire. 
The open ichools of public manners, 
which exhibit at all times the touchitone 
It is wue, that the hords of 
of the public mind, are the theatres. It is 
true that the {cenic art has been debafed by 
the moft vapid buffoonery ; that true tafte 
hes been cheated into a momentary de- 
fertion from its natural tenour, by the 
fplendour of pantomimical pageants, and 
the broad caricature of vuigar perfonifica- 
tion; yet we have feen refiuement plea- 
fingly prefented in the very extent of 
fafhionable attire, and the heart has melted 
with fympathy at fcenes pataetically cre- 
ated by a romantic imagination. ‘The 
dramatic boards have not been exclufively 
dedicated to produétions of this fpecies ; 
for though the elegant and. polifhed have 
fmiled through the lively Scenes, and ap- 
plauded the brilliant wit of a Sheridan ; 
though manners have been delineated wish 
a free and capable pencil by a Burgoyne, 
a Morton, a Reynolds, an Inchbald, and 
a Cowley; though tafte has at times 
turned from our own rich and national 
feaft of rational fentiment, to ficken itfelf 
on the high-feafoned treat of a German 
falmagundi;- ftill we have feen, in the 
charaéters of a Penruddock and a De 
Montfort, fuch tenderneis, fuch harmony 
of colouring,. fuch powers of diferimina- 
tion, and {uch expanfion of thought, as 
would have added a new trophy to the 
laurels of an Otway. Ought wenot tobluth 
then, when we reflect, that fome of our 
very firft literary and dramatic writers 
ficop from their own native eminence, to 
follow the footfteps, and adorn their brows 
with wreaths, the produce of ether lefs 
gifted, lets enlightened labourers. in the 
wide field of li terar y emulation ? 
The theatres have, frequently, exhi- 
bited the moft fublime efforts of the dra- 
maticart, with advantages that are fearcely 
to be paralleled. The attonifhing powers 
of a Kemble and a Siddons, the magical 
fafcinations of a Jordan, have been the 
fource of wonder and delight to the dif- 
criminating of all nations who have vi- 
fiied the metropolis; while, by their ex- 
CEuaESs even the moit glaring violations 
of probability, and the moft abfurd expe- 
riments of a vitiated tafte, have frequently 
“pafied current with the multitude. 
Perhaps, on the habitable globe there 
is not a more {plendid aflemblage of dra- 
matic talents than is to be found at this 
period on the Brinth ftage. And if-the 
authors of the prefent day condeicend to 
mingle with genuine wit the buffoonery of 
duilnels ; ; it is becaule reficétion flies to the 
theatres to forget the: terrific {cenes of 
warfare, and the glaomy intricacies of 
political manceuvre. Man, when he is 
oO pprefied 
