I am far from being an enemy to the stage. On the contrary, I think the stage under proper regulations might be rendered highly useful. For of all our publick diversions, the stage, if purged from the obscenity of farce, and the low buffoonery of pantomime, is certainly capable of affording infinitely the most rational, and the most manly entertainment. But when I see the same disorders in our own theatres, which were so loudly complained of in the time of Tiberius; when the ridiculous contests between contending players are judged to be of such mighty importance, as to split the publick into the same kind of factions; when these factions interest themselves so warmly in the support of the supposed merit of their respective favourites, as to proceed to riots, blows, and the most extravagant indecencies; I cannot help wishing for the interposition of the reforming spirit of Augustus. And when I see the same insatiable fondness for diversions, the same unmeaning taste (so justly ridiculed by Horace in his countrymen) prevail in our own nation,[302] which mark the most degenerate times of Greece and Rome, I cannot but look upon them as a certain indication of the frivolous and effeminate manners of the present age. [247] Romulus had divided the whole people into thirty curiæ, ten of which composed a tribe. At their comitia or general assemblies, the people divided into their respective curiæ and gave their votes man by man. The majority of votes in each curia passed for the voice of the whole curia, and the majority of the curiæ for the general determination of the whole people.