fhallow, only because he can fathom them with ease; for that would be to wrong both himself and their author, who, if there is any vanity in a pedantic margin of references, certainly refifted that vanity, and as certainly had it at his choice to have loaded his page with as great a parade of authorities, as any of his brother writers upon claffical fubjects have oftentatiously displayed. But if any learned critic, now or hereafter, shall find occafion to charge thefe Effays on the fcore of false authority or actual error, their author will moft thankfully meet the inveftigation; and the fair reviewer shall find that he has either candour to adopt correctión, or materials enough in reserve to maintain every warrantable affertion.

The Moralift and the Divine, it is hoped, will here find nothing to except against; it is not likely fuch an offence should be committed by one, who has refted all his hope in that Revelation, on which his faith is founded; whom nothing could ever divert from his aim of turning even the gayeft fubjects to moral purposes, and who reprobates thejeft, which provokes a laugh at the expence of a blush.

The

The Effays of a critical fort are no less addreffed to the moral objects of compofition, than to those which they have more profeffedly in view: They are not undertaken for the invidious purpofe of developing errors, and ftripping the laurels of departed poets, but fimply for the uses of the living. The fpecimens already given, and thofe which are intended to follow in the further profecution of the work, are propofed as difquifitions of inftruction rather than of fubtlety; and if they fhall be found more particularly to apply to dramatic compofition, it is because their author looks up to the stage, as the great arbiter of more important delights, than those only which concern the taste and talents of the nation; it is because he fees with serious regret the buffoonery and low abufe of humour to which it is finking, and apprehends for the confequences fuch an influx of folly may lead to. It will be readily granted there are but two modes of combating this abafement of the drama with any probability of fuccefs: One of these modes is, by an expofition of fome one or other of the productions in question, which

are

are fuppofed to contribute to its degradation; the other is, by inviting the attention of the public to an examination of better models, in which the standard works of our early dramatifts abound. If the latter mode therefore should be adopted in these Effays, and the former altogether omitted, none of their readers will regret the preference that has been given upon fuch an alternative.

If the ladies of wit and talents do not take offence at some of these Effays, it will be a test of the truth of their pretensions, when they discern that the raillery, pointed only at affectation and falfe character, has no concern with them. There is nothing in which this nation has more right to pride itself, than the genius of its women; they have only to add a little more attention to their domeftic virtues, and their fame will fly over the face of the globe. If I had ever known a good. match broken off on the part of the man, because a young lady had too much modefty and difcretion, or was too strictly educated in the duties of a good wife, I hope I underftand myself too well to obtrude my oldfashioned maxims upon them. They might be as witty as they pleased, if I thought it

was

was for their good; but if a racer, that has too great a fhare of heels, muft lie by because it cannot be matched, fo must every young spinfter if her wits are too nimble. If I could once difcover that men chufe their wives, as they do their friends, for their manly atchievments and convivial talents, for their being jolly fellows over a bottle, or topping a five-barred gate in a fox-chace, I fhould then be able to account for the many Amazonian figures I encounter in flouched hats, great-coats and half-boots, and I would not prefume to fet my face against the fashion; or if my experience of the fairfex could produce a fingle inftance in the fect of Sentimentalists, which could make me doubt of the pernicious influence of a Mufidorus and a Lady Thimble, I would not fo earnestly have preffed the examples of a Sappho, a Calliope or a Meliffa.

The firft Numbers of the present collec tion, to the amount of forty, have already been published; but being worked off at a country press, I find myself under the painful neceffity of difcontinuing the edition. I have availed myself of this opportunity, not only by correcting the imperfections of the

first publication, but by rendering this as unexceptionable (in the external at least) as I poffibly could. I fhould have been wanting to the public and myflf, if the flattering encouragement I have already received had not prompted me to proceed with the work; and if my alacrity in the further profecution of it fhall meet any check, it must arise only from those causes, which no human diligence can controul,

Vos tamen O noftri ne feftináte libelli!

Si poft fata venit gloria, none propero.

END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.