sublime passage, I become wrapt up in it alone and totally forget the piece itself. In order to inspire a foreigner with admiration for Shakespeare, I would not give him his plays to read entire, but I would present him with a _recueil_ of the most beautiful passages of that great poet; and I am sure he would be so delighted with them that he would readily join in the "All Hail" that the British nation awards him. Thus you may perceive the distinction I make between the creative genius who designs, and the artist who fills up the canvas; between the Poet and the Dramaturgus. I am probably singular in my taste as an Englishman, when I tell you that I prefer Shakespeare for the closet and Racine or Voltaire or Corneille for the stage: and with regard to English tragedies, I prefer as an acting drama Home's _Douglas_[46] to any of Shakespeare's, _Macbeth_ alone excepted; and for this plain reason that the interest in _Douglas_ never flags, nor is diverted. In giving my mite of admiration to the French stage, I am fully aware of its faults, of the long declamation and the _fade galanterie_ that prevailed before Voltaire made the grand reform in that particular: and on this account I prefer Voltaire as a tragedian to Racine and Corneille. The _Phédre_ and _Athalie_ of Racine are certainly masterpieces, and little inferior to them are _Iphigénie, Andromaque_ and _Britannicus_, but in the others I think he must be pronounced inferior to Voltaire; as a proof of my argument I need only cite _Zaïre, Alzire, Mahomet, Sémiramis, l'Orphelin de la Chine, Brutus_. Voltaire has, I think, united in his dramatic writings the beauties of Corneille, Racine and Crébillon and has avoided their faults; this however is not, I believe, the opinion of the French in general, but I follow my own judgment in affairs of taste, and if anything pleases me I wait not to ascertain whether the "master hath said so." It shows a delicate attention on the part of the directors of the _Théâtre Français_, now that so many foreigners of all nations are here, to cause to be represented every night the masterpieces of the French classical dramatic authors, since these are pieces that every foreigner of education has read and admired; and he would much rather go to see acted a play with which he was thoroughly acquainted than a new piece of one which he has not read; for as the recitation is extremely rapid it would not be so easy for him to seize and follow it without previous reading.