n in death; the rights of the church and christian burial
being refused to them by the clergy.

In England, where the clouds of religious intolerance were first broken
and dispersed by the reformation, the stage has flourished, and
exhibited a mass of excellence and a constellation of genius
unparalleled in the annals of the world. There it has been encouraged
and admired by men whose authority, as persons deeply versed in
christian theology and learned as it is given to human creatures to be,
we do not scruple to prefer to that of the persons who raise their
voices against the stage. Milton, Pope, Addison, Johnson, Warburton,
bishop of Gloucester, and many others have given their labours to the
stage. In many of his elegant periodical papers Mr. ADDISON has left
testimonies of his veneration for it, and of his personal respect for
players; nay, he wrote several pieces for the stage, in comedy as well
as tragedy; yet we believe it will not be doubted that he was an
orthodox christian. The illustrious POPE, in a prologue which he wrote
for one of Mr. Addison's plays--the tragedy of Cato--speaks his opinion
of the stage in the following lines:

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart,
To make mankind in conscious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage,
Commanding tears to stream through every age.
Tyrants no more their savage nature kept,
And foes to virtue wondered how they wept.

Warburton, the friend of Pope, a divine of the highest rank, wrote notes
to Shakspeare. And an infinite number of the christian clergy of as
orthodox piety as any that ever lived, have admired and loved plays and
players. If in religion doctor Johnson had a fault, it certainly was
excessive zeal--and assuredly his morality cannot be called in question.
What his idea of the stage was, may be inferred from his labours, and
from his private friendships. His preface to Shakspeare--his
illustrations and characters of the bard's plays--his tragedy of
Irene, of which he diligently superintended the rehearsal and
representation--his friendship for Garrick and for Murphy--his letters
in the Idler and Rambler, from one of which we have taken our motto for
the Dramatic Censor, and his constant attendance on the theatre, loudly
proclaim his opinion of the stage. To him who would persist to think
sinful that which the scrupul