e laugh'd out of
their _Duty_, but be perswaded, not only to withdraw _themselves_ from a
Place of so much Danger, but advise _others_ to do the like; that the
Stage may no longer Triumph in the _Spoils_ of Virtue and Religion. 'Tis
now the time to begin such an _Undertaking_: We have a powerful Enemy
_abroad_, and a more formidable one at _home_; I mean that _Looseness_
and _Irreligion_ which so abounds: and what will it avail us to _subdue_
the one, while we _encourage_ the other? The _Hand of God_ has been
lifted up against us, we have seen the _Terrors of the Lord_, and felt
the _Arrows of the Almighty_; and what can all this mean, but to awaken
us to a due Sense of our _Danger_? And, 'tis to be hop'd, the Nation has
already taken the Alarm, and begin to think how to avert God's
Displeasure. The _Stage_ is called in Question, and Papers are dispers'd
to warn us of its Mischiefs; and it is not improbable that the
_Licentious_ and _Unbounded Liberty_ the Players have taken of late
years, and particularly in their daring to Act THE TEMPEST within a very
few Days after the late dreadful Storm, has rais'd in the Minds of Men
such an Abhorrence and Indignation, that we may possibly be so happy as
to see the Stage (if not _totally suppress'd_) yet brought under such a
_Regulation_, both as to the _Plays_ that are Acted, and the _Company_
that Resort to them, that Foreigners may no longer _stand amaz'd_ when
brought into our _Theatres_, nor Good Men _tremble_ at the Continuance
of them: but that _Virtue_ may appear there with all its Charms, and
_Vice_ be expos'd to the utmost _Contempt_. In short, that the Stage may
become so _Chast_, that even those _Birds of Prey_ who now hover about
the _Play-Houses_ and make the Avenues to 'em so dangerous, may fly away
from a Place that will no longer _Encourage_ nor _Protect_ them.

But after all, _Madam_, Whether this is such a Scheme as can ever be
reduc'd in Practice; whether so _noble a Structure_ as I am speaking of,
can be erected upon so _rotten_ a _Foundation_; whether the _Wound_ is
not _Gangreen'd_, and must be cur'd by _Excision_; I say, whether such a
_Regulation_ of the _Stage_ be possible, must be left to those who have
_Skill_ and _Authority_ to try the Experiment. In the mean time, it will
be every one's Duty to run from a Place of such _Infection_, least they
contribute to the spreading a _Disease_ which may, in time, prove
_Fatal_ to the whole Nation. But I forget, _