This page has been validated.
The Preface.
This ſmall Treatiſe is only levell’d againſt thoſe Opera’s which are entirely Muſical; for thoſe which are Drammatical may be partly defended by the Examples of the Ancients. We have endeavour’d to ſhew in the following Treatiſe, that the Engliſh Stage is like to be overthrown by the Progreſs of theſe new Opera’s; it would be eaſie here to ſhew the Importance of that Stage to the Publick: That People muſt and will have Diverſions, and that a great and flouriſhing People will have publick Diverſions, that if the Government does not take care to provide reaſonable Diverſions for them, they will not fail to provide ſuch for themſelves as are without Reaſon. That unreaſonable ones are pernicious to Government, and that reaſonable ones are advantagious to it; that pleaſure of Senſe being too much indulged, makes Reaſon ceaſe to be a Pleaſure, and by conſequence is contrary both to publick and private Duty. That the Drama of all reaſonable Diverſions is the beſt that has ever been invented at once to delight and inſtruct the World, that it has never flouriſh’d but in Three or Four of the braveſt Nations that have been ſince the World began, and that in the moſt flouriſhing States of thoſe Nations, and that
a
