aps it may be, but sure a wilder Suggestion, never
was offered to men of Common sense, than, that _if the Stage be damned_,
the _Art used_ by _Moses, and David, and Solomon, must be no more_.
[Footnote: _See Mr. D's. verses before Beauty, in Distress._] Are we
fallen into an Age so incapable of of distinguishing, that there should
be no visible difference left between, the Excellencies and the Abuse of
any Art? No. _Mr: Dryden_ himself hath taught us better. We will have
all due regard for the Author of _Absalom_ and _Achitophel_, and several
other pieces of just renown, and should admire him for a rich Vein of
Poetry, though he had never written a Play in his whole Life. Nor shall
we think our selves obliged to burn the Translation of _Virgil_ by
vertue of that sentence, which seems here to be pronounced upon that of
the Fourth Book of _Lucretius_. The World, I Suppose, are not all
agreed, that then is but _One_ Sort of Poetry, and as far from allowing,
that the _Dramatick_, is that One. They who write after those_ Divine,
Patterns of Moses &c_: will be no whit the less Poets, though there were
not a Theatre left upon the Face of the Earth; Their Honours will be
more deserved, Their Laurells more verdant and lasting, when blemished
with none of those Reproaches from Others, or their own breasts, which
are due to the Corrupters of Mankind, And such are all They, who soften
men's abhorrence of Vice, and cherish their dangerous Passions. To tell
us then, that All, even Divine, Poetry must be silenced and for ever
lost, when the Play-houses are once shut up, is to impose too grossely
upon our Understandings. And their Sophistry bears hard, methinks, upon
Profaneness, which insinuates the Hymns dictated by the Holy Spirit, of
God, to be so nearly related to the Modern Compositions for the Stage,
that both must of necessity stand and fall together.

If Poetry have of late sunk in its credit, that misfortune is owing to
the degenerate and Mercenary Pens, of some who have set up for the great
Masters of it. No man I presume, is for exterminating that noble Art,
no not even in the _Dramatick_ part; provided it can be effectually
reformed. But if the Reformation of the Stage be no longer practicable,
reason good that the incurable Evil should be cut off: If it be
practicable, let the Persons concerned give Evidence of it to the World,
by tempering their Wit so, as to render it Serviceable to Virtuous
purposes, without giving just