If it be impoffible to think without materials, there must neceffarily be minds that do not always think; and whence fhall we furnish materials for the meditation of the glutton between his meals, of the sportsman in a rainy month, of the annuitant between the days of quarterly payment, of the politician when the mails are detained by contrary winds?

But how frequent foever may be the examples of existence without thought, it is certainly a ftate not much to be defired. He that lives in torpid infenfibility, wants nothing of a carcafe but putrefaction. It is the part of every inhabitant of the earth to partake the pains and pleasures of his fellow beings; and, as in a road through a country defart and uniform, the traveller languishes for want of amufement, fo the paffage of life will be tedious and irksome to him who does not beguile it by diverfified ideas.

I

NUMB. 25. SATURDAY, October 7, 1758.

SIR,

To the IDLER.

AM a very conftant frequenter of the playhouse, a place to which I fuppofe the Idler not much a ftranger, fince he can have no where elfe fo much entertainment with fo little concurrence of his own endeavour. At all other affemblies, he that comes to receive delight, will be expected to give it; but in the theatre, nothing is neceffary to the amusement of two hours, but to fit down and be willing to be pleafed.

The laft week has offered two new actors to the town. The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with conjecture and prognostication, as the first actions of a new monarch agitate nations with hope or fear.

What opinion I have formed of the future excellence of thefe candidates for dramatick glory, it is not neceffary to declare. Their entrance gave me a higher and nobler pleasure than any borrowed character can afford. I faw the ranks of the theatre emulating each other in candour and humanity, and contending who fhould moft effectually affift the ftruggles of endeavour, diffipate the blush of diffidence, and fill the flutter of timidity.

This

This behaviour is fuch as becomes a people, too tender to reprefs those who wish to please, too generous to infult those who can make no refiftance. A publick performer is fo much in the power of spectators, that all unneceffary severity is reftrained by that general law of humanity, which forbids us to be cruel where there is nothing to be feared.

In every new performer fomething must be pardoned. No man can, by any force of refolution, fecure to himself the full poffeffion of his own powers under the eye of a large affembly. Variation of gefture, and flexion of voice, are to be obtained only by experience.

There is nothing for which fuch numbers think themselves qualified as for theatrical exhibition. Every human being has an action graceful to his own eye, a voice musical to his own ear, and a fenfibility which nature forbids him to know that any other bofom can excel. An art in which fuch numbers fancy themselves excellent, and which the publick liberally rewards, will excite many competitors, and in many attempts there must be many miscarriages.

The care of the critick fhould be to diftinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature. Action irregular and turbulent may be reclaimed; vociferation vehement and confused may be restrained and modulated; the stalk of the tyrant may become the gait of a man; the yell of inarticulate diftrefs may be reduced to human lamentation: All these faults fhould be for a time overlooked, and afterwards cenfured with VOL. VIII. gentle

H

gentleness and candour. But if in an actor there appears an utter vacancy of meaning, a frigid equality, a ftupid languor, a torpid apathy, the greatest kindness that can be fhewn him, is a speedy fentence of expulfion.

I am, SIR, &c.

THE plea which my correfpondent has offered for young actors, I am very far from wishing to invalidate. I always confidered thofe combinations which are fometimes formed in the playhouse, as acts of fraud or of cruelty; he that applauds him who does not deferve praife, is endeavouring to deceive the publick; he that hiffes in malice or fport, is an oppreffor and a robber.

But furely this laudable forbearance might be justly extended to young poets. The art of the writer, like that of the player, is attained by flow degrees. The power of diftinguifhing and difcriminating comick characters, or of filling tragedy with poetical images, muft be the gift of nature, which no inftruction nor labour can fupply; but the art of dramatick difpofition, the contexture of the fcenes, the oppofition of characters, the involution of the plot, the expedients of fufpenfion, and the ftratagems of furprize, are to be learned by practice; and it is cruel to difcourage a poet for ever, because he has not from genius what only experience can beftow.

Life is a ftage. Let me likewife follicit candour for the young actor on the ftage of life. They that

enter

enter into the world are too often treated with unreasonable rigour by thofe that were once as ignorant and heady as themfelves; and distinction is not always made between the faults which require speedy and violent eradication, and thofe that will gradually drop away in the progreffion of life. Vicious follicitations of appetite, if not checked, will grow more importunate; and mean arts of profit or ambition will gather ftrength in the mind, if they are not early fuppreffed. But mistaken notions of fuperiority, defires of useless fhow, pride of little accomplishments, and all the train of vanity, will be brushed away by the wing of time.

Reproof should not exhauft its power upon petty failings; let it watch diligently againft the incurfion of vice, and leave foppery and futility to die of themselves.

H 2