Eternal Joys to _Mosse_ kind Heaven give, By whom, on Earth, so many Thousands live! The _Marine Society_, of recent Institution also, disposeth many poor young Men into a Condition of acquiring an honest, and praise-worthy Livelihood, and of becoming useful Members of the Community; by serving on Board of his Majesty’s Fleets in War-time, and serving our Merchants in Times of Peace; and, in this double Capacity, of contributing to the general Welfare of their Mother-Country, to which they may otherwise prove a Burden. Our publick Entertainments of various Kinds are, for the most Part, conducted with strict Propriety, and real Politeness; those especially of the Theatre, which should, by no Means, pass for Matter of slight or casual Consideration; seeing the _Romans_, the greatest of all People, esteemed the Theatre worthy the Attention of particular Laws, _Roscia Lex Theatralis_, &c. Mr. _Sheridan_’s general Merit as a _Player_ stands confessed; but as a _Manager_, that Gentleman’s falling frequently under the heavy Displeasure of the Public, (whether from an haughty Distaste to his Profession, or indulged Arrogance of Temper) with his violent Introduction of anti-dramatick Rope and Wire-dancing, Tumbling, and Fire-eating, to the visible Degradation of a liberal Stage, whereon nothing mean, shocking, or monstrous, should ever appear; he hath not succeeded so well: Then, his Scheme of uniting an Academy, for the sober regular Education of Youth, with a publick Theatre, seemed rather the feverish Delusion of a distempered Brain, and heated Imagination, than the cool deliberate Result of rational Judgment; from which fermented Source, also seem’d directly to flow his avowed Concern for the _long lost Art of Oratory_ among us: Had Mr. _Sheridan_ attended to the Debates of our High Court of Parliament; been frequent in our different Churches, and at the Bars of our Courts of Judicature; and had, in this Case, formed a comparative Judgment, from the Writings of _Demosthenes_, _Plato_, _Isocrates_, _Cicero_, and _Pliny_ the Younger; from the Rules and Precepts of _Aristotle_, _Longinus_, _Horace_, _Quinctilian_, _Scaliger_, _Rapin_, _Porée_, and _Rollin_; he had been _then_ convinced how little Occasion there was for his _lamenting_ the _Loss_ of an Art in this Kingdom, which breathes there in full Maturity of all it’s persuasive Charms. This his dogmatical Assertion of the _long-lost Art of Oratory_, his wild _Academical_ Projects, with the foregoing theatrical Inconsistencies, too much subject that Gentleman to the Character given, by the _Roman_ Satirist, of an assuming sharp-set _Greekling_: _Gramaticus, Rhetor, Geometres, Pictor, Aliptes, Augur, Scœnobates, Medicus, Magus, omnia novit._