1810.) , &viracis from the Port-folio of a Man of Letiers. 
matters to. judge, it was he, who had so 
long, so much, so advantageously considered ; 
and which is more, never had the least world- 
ly designin his determinations. 
7. He was notonly most truly and strictly 
just in his secular transactions, most exem- 
piarily meek and humble, notwithstanding 
his perfections, but, beyond all example, 
charitable, giving unto all, preserving no- 
thing but his books, to continue bis learn- 
ing and himself ; which, when he had be- 
fore divested, he was forced at ijast to feed 
upon, at the same time the happiest and most 
unfortunate 4elluo of books ; the grand exam- 
ple of learning, and of the envy and contempt 
which followeth’ it. 
8. While he lived none was ever more sol- 
licited and urged to write, and thereby .truly 
to teach the world, than he3 none ever so 
resolved (pardon the expression, so obstinate, ) 
against it. His facile and courteous nature 
learnt only not to yield to that sollicitation. 
And yet he cannot be accused for hiding of 
his talent, being so communicative, that his 
chamber was a church, and his chair a 
pulpit. 
ol. 
9. Onely that there might some taste con= 
tinue of him, some of his remains were col- 
lected, such as he could not but write, and 
such as, when written, were out of his 
power todestroy. These consist oftwo parts, of 
Sermons, and of Letters; and each of them pro- 
ceeded from him ugon respective obligations. 
The letters, though written by himself, yet 
were wholly in the:power’ of that honour- 
able person to whom they were sent, and by 
that means they were preserved. The ser= 
mons, preached on several occasions, were 
snatcht from him by his. friends, and, in 
their hands, the copies were continued, or, 
by transcription, disperst. 
10, As to those lecters,* written from the 
Synod of Dort, take notice, that, in his 
younger days, he was a Calvinist, and even 
then when he was employed at that Synod, - 
and at the well pressing, Io. iii. 16, by Epis- 
copus, ‘¢ There I bid John Caivin good 
night, as he has often told me.’’t 
* Out of Mr. Farington’s letter. 
+ Oue of Dr. Pearson’s Preiace to he 
Golden Remains. 
Extracts fromthe Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
= 
THEATRES. 
We the two great theatres of 
London were in ashes, it would 
have been easy for government to buy in 
the patents, or exclusive grants ; and to 
permit associations of individuals to erect 
theatres in any parts of the metropolis. 
In this case, play-houses would be small 
and numerous. Some would be cheap, 
in order to tempt the multitude ; some 
would be dear, in order to segregate the 
Juxurious. The greater number of ac- 
tors would secure a more unremitting 
growth of excellence in that art; the 
greater number of exhibitions, would 
open to dramatic poets a wider range of 
compettion: more plays would be writ-- 
ten, and of course more good ones. In 
small theatres, dialogue can be heard, 
and acting seen, though naturally execu- 
ted; but in great theatres, only carica- 
lure is acceptable, Hellman-voices, and 
features that outyrin Le Brun’s Passions, 
are alone intelligible. Tence the drama 
loses, in all respects, (see Espriella’s 
XVI{Ith Letter), by large plav-houses. | 
A new danger, not to the poetic art, 
but to the political constitution of the 
country, is growing out of the singleness 
of the national theatre. .It is becoming 
a poll-booth of faction, a place for giving 
public suffrazes on those questions of 
@pinion, which divide the metropolitan © 
public. It-is becoming what the Circus, 
was at. Rome, and the Hippodrome at 
Constantinople. Now let any man read 
Gibbons’s fortieth chapter, and ask him-.. 
self, whether the size of the theatres. was. 
not precisely the cause, which. rendered, 
the public opinion expressed there, so 
imperious throughout themetropohis. — It, 
is notorious, that not merely administra- 
tions, but even royal families, have been 
cashiered by the well-timed placards and 
cockades of the spectators in the Con- 
stantinopolitan hippodrome: and_ that 
the emperor Justinian was in a manner 
deposed by.an audience, and restored by 
an actress. | 
To deliver this country from such — 
dangers, surely the expense of buying in 
and levelling with the ground the new 
theatre, ought not for a moment to be 
grudged. Play-houses, when exclusive. 
privileges are abolished, would become 
as numerous as conventicles ; and indeed 
might be.so constructed as alternately to 
serve both purposes. In this state of 
dimension, they could not collect a dan- 
gerous assemblage. 
THE FXAMINATION OF SIR MORGAN MEe 
REDITH, vVicak OF OUR LADY CHURCH 
THERE, : ’ 
* ii primis he sayeth, that he hath 
bene vicar there sx" yeres. 
“ Ttm, that Vicar Prodsham akties 
shat 
