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the very Spirit of Propheſie, which was the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, departing from the Jews in the Babyloniſh Captivity, was a fatal Omen that Liberty and Empire were never to flouriſh more with them.
That the Declenſion of Poetry ſhould portend the fall of Empire is not without very good Reaſon. Becauſe it ſhews a ſlackning of the publick Spirit, and an increaſe of univerſal Corruption, which prepares the Fate of Empires, as a ſpreading mortification fore-runs the Fate of Men. If a Poet is not admir’d, tho’ the Man may live, the Spirit of the Poet dies, but a People to admire thoſe generous Sentiments which abound in Poetry, muſt at leaſt have ſomething in them that anſwers to them: If they once grow wholly immerſt and ſunk in Pleaſures of ſenſe, thoſe elevated Notions appear as ſo many Libels upon them, and their ſickly Souls either turn away from them, or very feebly anſwer to them. In ſhort, where-ever there is either the Love of Liberty or the Love of Glory, a true Poet may well be admir’d, and in how wretched a condition muſt the Nation be where both thoſe Qualities are wanting. From what has been ſaid ’tis manifeſt that it behoves us to think, before we fully reſolve upon baniſhing ſo uſeful an Entertainment as that of the Drama, for the pernicious Amuſement of Opera’s.
The Drama was eſtabliſh’d here in England at the ſame time with Reformation and Liberty: For the Drama was ſet up in the Reign of Qu. Elizabeth, in whoſe Reign the Reformation was fully eſtabliſh’d, and before which the People of England, for Reaſons too long to be inſerted here, could hardly be ſaid to be entirely free. As the Drama came in with them, it has flouriſh’d with them, and gone a good way towards the ſupporting that Spirit of Liberty on which the Reformation depends. It would here be eaſie to make an odd Remark, and that is, that
the
