es we have left in town, or within call of it, will be present,
because it is the last play this season. This opportunity will, I hope,
inflame my pupil with such generous notions from seeing this fair
assembly as will be then present, that his play may be composed of
sentiments and characters proper to be presented to such an audience.
His drama at present has only the outlines drawn. There are, I find, to
be in it all the reverent offices of life, such as regard to parents,
husbands, and honourable lovers, preserved with the utmost care; and at
the same time that agreeableness of behaviour, with the intermixture of
pleasing passions as arise from innocence and virtue, interspersed in
such a manner, as that to be charming and agreeable shall appear the
natural consequence of being virtuous. This great end is one of those I
propose to do in my Censorship; but if I find a thin house, on an
occasion when such a work is to be promoted, my pupil shall return to
his commons at Oxford, and Sheer Lane and the theatres be no longer
correspondents.

[Footnote 303: See No. 14.]

[Footnote 304: Colley Cibber, actor and dramatist, was born in 1671. He
was admirable alike as an actor of comic parts and a critic of acting,
and some of his comedies are excellent. In 1714 Cibber became associated
with Steele in the management of Drury Lane Theatre. After his
retirement from the stage in 1733 he published his famous "Apology"
(1740). He died in 1757. Steele wrote several times in his praise in the
_Spectator_ (Nos. 370, 546).]

[Footnote 305: Sir Harry Wildair, in Farquhar's "Constant Couple."]

[Footnote 306: Sir Novelty Fashion, in Cibber's "Love's Last Shift."]

[Footnote 307: In this play, produced in 1705, Wilks was Sir Charles
Easy; Cibber, Lord Foppington; and Mrs. Oldfield, Lady Betty Modish. In
his "Apology" Cibber said that it was only just to place to the account
of Mrs. Oldfield a large share of the favourable reception accorded to
"The Careless Husband."]

No. 183. [STEELE.

From _Thursday, June 8_, to _Saturday, June 10, 1710_.

----Fuit haec sapientia quondam,
Publica privatis secernere.
HOR., Ars Poet. 396.

* * * * *

_From my own Apartment, June 9._

When men look into their own bosoms, and consider the generous seeds
which are there planted, that might, if rightly cultivated,