acters they represent in public, and their allurements are employed
chiefly, if not solely, for the gratification of their vanity, or the
furtherance of their pecuniary interest. Here and there, may perhaps be
found an example of the influence of personal love: but in general they
make their charms tributary to their purses, and to their standing in
the theatre. To prove this it need only be stated as a general rule, to
which there are but very few exceptions, that in England the greatest
favourites with that class of females, and those for whose preference
they most artfully vie with each other, is some ordinary, or perhaps
hoary manager, who, if he be so disposed, is sure to carry away those
precious prizes from the finest youths or prime men of the theatre,
unless to youth and personal elegance the latter should add great
professional merit and the power and influence consequent to it.

A moment's consideration will show that, for the purposes of women of
this description, there could not possibly be found a more hopeful
object than such a young person as Hodgkinson must necessarily have been
at this period of his life. Unassisted by early instruction

----No parent's care
Shielded his infant innocence with prayer;
No father's guardian hand his youth maintained;
Called forth his virtues or from vice restrained.

Raised by his own talents and industry to great celebrity, and at a time
of life, when others have not ventured to cross the threshold of the
profession, honoured with the patronage of the first dramatic personage
living, it would be a miracle if he had not been rendered giddy by his
unexpected height. He had as yet had no experience to make him wise, no
sufferings to make him cautious. From his boyish days he was compelled,
by the necessity of his situation, to associate with persons of all
others the most likely to corrupt his morals, and continually exposed to
dangers which he was incapable of suspecting, and therefore could not
defeat. On the other hand every circumstance attending his condition had
a tendency to intoxicate his brain: the first dawn of manhood broke upon
him with the dazzling glare of a full and fervid prosperity, which no
modesty could prevent him from knowing to be the fruits of his own
extraordinary merit. Along with this, his personal endowments, which
were of themselves sufficient in private life to have filled the best
regulated young mind with