xpelling or subduing the old inhabitants, and seating themselves in
their rooms, if they liked the conditions of place and commodities of
life they met with; if not, going on till they found some other more
agreeable to their present humours and dispositions.' He attributes
their successes and their rapid propagation to the greater vigour of
life in the northern climates; and the only reason he gives for the
absence of like effects during the continued presence of like causes
is, that Christianity abated their enthusiasm and allayed 'the
restless humour of perpetual wars and actions.']

* * * * *

No. 22. Monday, March 26, 1711. Steele.

'Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi.'

Hor.

The word _Spectator_ being most usually understood as one of the
Audience at Publick Representations in our Theatres, I seldom fail of
many Letters relating to Plays and Operas. But, indeed, there are such
monstrous things done in both, that if one had not been an Eye-witness
of them, one could not believe that such Matters had really been
exhibited. There is very little which concerns human Life, or is a
Picture of Nature, that is regarded by the greater Part of the Company.
The Understanding is dismissed from our Entertainments. Our Mirth is the
Laughter of Fools, and our Admiration the Wonder of Idiots; else such
improbable, monstrous, and incoherent Dreams could not go off as they
do, not only without the utmost Scorn and Contempt, but even with the
loudest Applause and Approbation. But the Letters of my Correspondents
will represent this Affair in a more lively Manner than any Discourse of
my own; I [shall therefore [1] ] give them to my Reader with only this
Preparation, that they all come from Players, [and that the business of
Playing is now so managed that you are not to be surprised when I say]
one or two of [them [2]] are rational, others sensitive and vegetative
Actors, and others wholly inanimate. I shall not place these as I have
named them, but as they have Precedence in the Opinion of their
Audiences.

"Mr. SPECTATOR,

Your having been so humble as to take Notice of the Epistles of other
Animals, emboldens me, who am the wild Boar that was killed by Mrs.
_Tofts_, [3] to represent to you, That I think I was hardly used
in not having the Part of the Lion in 'Hydaspes' given to me. It
would