O A.H. Esq; &c.

SIR,

Forgive me if I think it Ill-nature in you to leave the Town, at a
Time when it wants your Company, and seems to beg your Assistance: How
can you propose to live at Ease in the Country, when so many of your
Friends, the Wits, are engag'd here in open War? Let Mr. _Collier_ say
what he pleases of Mr. _Dryden_, I begin to think 'twas his prophetick
Genius mov'd him to declaim against Priests; and there is great reason
to complain of their being the Incendiaries of the People, when they
set the World on fire by Preaching, which they were only sent to warm.
But what can Mr. _Collier_ mean by exposing the Stage so? he wou'd not
surely have it silenc'd: That wou'd be a little too barbarous, and too
much like Cant to be entertain'd by Men of Thought or Ingenuity. I
wou'd rather suppose he design'd a Reformation; and that is so
reasonable, I wonder any Man should put his Face in disorder, or study
a Revenge for the Attempt. But it may be ask'd, Cou'd he not have done
that without exposing so many great _Genius_'s? Had it not been
better to have let Mr. _Durfey_ alone? Tho' even this Method wou'd not
have pleas'd every body; for whate'er Effect it has had on Mr.
_Vanbroug_ and _Congreve; Motteux_ and _Guildon_ resent it to the last
degree. Is their nothing in their Works Illustrious, or that cou'd
merit Censure? Indeed some People are not to be reclaim'd by Ridicule;
and Mr. _Collier_ knowing their Vertues, with how much Compos'dness
and Resignation they can bear a Hiss, out of Compassion, took Example
by the Town and neglected both.

It is the Observation of some, That whereever the State flourishes,
the Theatre has never fail'd of Encouragement; and that 'tis hardly
possible the State shou'd suffer without the others sinking in its
Reputation. It is Pity that _England_ shou'd be the only Exception,
and since we have some of our Nobility, who have a Taste of Eloquence,
and all those Vertues which adorn the Stage, that It shou'd want their
Assistance by whom it was at first rais'd, and since maintain'd: If it
has fallen from its Purity, or never arriv'd to what they fully lik'd,
let it not want their Countenance, without whom 'tis impossible to be
any thing at all, and by whom it may become all that we can wish. They
alone can free it from Contempt and Censure, by maintaining such an
Awe, that the least Glymps of Profaneness and Immorality shou'd not
dare to appear on the Stage; and this may be done by