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muſt ſo far debauch the Minds of Men, as to make them incapable of thoſe reaſonable Diverſions, which have got the juſt Poſſeſſion of the Stage.
Thus unleſs we uſe timely Prevention, the Britiſh Muſe is like to meet with the ſame Fate that Tithonus is ſaid to have done of old, who had no other Fruit of his Immortality, than to ſee himſelf depriv’d by the length of Days, of all his Strength, his Spirit, and his Tow’ring Thoughts, and eaten and conſum’d by the Jaws of Time, till nothing remain’d of him but an empty Voice.
’Tis undeniable, that in whatever Countries Opera’s have been eſtablish’d after the manner of Italy, they have driven out Poetry from among that People. ’Tis now more than a Hundred Years ſince the very ſpecies of Poets has diſappear’d in Italy; and at preſent there is not ſo much as one Poet in ſo vaſt a Kingdom as France, allowing Boileau to be ſuperannuated.
In the beginning of this War, we were perhaps the only People in Europe, who could juſtly boaſt of freedom or of Poetry. We have indeed very bravely defended our Liberties, but we have at the ſame time abandon’d our Poetry to the very Nations who have attack’d the other, and by I know not what Whimſey of Fate, while in the Field we have been knocking their braveſt Men on the Head, we have been careſſing and hugging the Off-ſcowring of them at home.
That Poetry is like from the Progreſs of Muſick, to have the ſame Fate in England, that it met with in France and Italy; we have very good reaſon to believe, when we conſider that of late Years, they who have had ſome Talent for writing, have, for the moſt part, ſtill writ worſe and worſe, and when that which has been well writ, has been worſe received by our Au-
diences;
