Imaginations with obscene Ideas, and their
Lives with Levity, Idleness and Luxury; I say, if that great Man,
whose Judgment was equal to his admirable Genius, had seen Religion
and Vertue so derided, and Modesty, Reservedness, and Decency so
insulted and expos'd, his Zeal for the Honour of his Country, and his
Love of Mankind, would have animated him to have attack'd the Comick
Poets with the same Spirit, with which he assaulted the prevailing
Folly of his Age, the Romantick Atchievements of Knights Errant; his
Wit and good Sense would have made those merry Authors as odious for
poisoning the People with their loose and immoral Writings, as he made
the others ridiculous for their extravagant and idle Tales.

No doubt a Comedy may be so contriv'd, that it may at once become
delightful, and promote Prudence and Sobriety of Manners; that is,
when the Characters are well chosen, justly delineated, and every
where distinguish'd; When the various Manners are exactly imitated and
carry'd on with Propriety and Uniformity; when the principal Action
contains an instructive Moral, and all the Parts in a regular
Connexion, Dependance and Proportion, illustrate and support each
other, and have a manifest Influence on the main Event; When the
Incidents are well imagin'd, and result from the Manners of the
Dramatick Persons, when the Turns are surprizing, the Knots or
Obstructions natural and unconstrain'd, and the unraveling of them,
tho unforeseen, yet free and easy; and when the Diction is pure,
proper and elegant, as well as chaste and inoffensive to the modest
and vertuous Hearers. So regular and beautiful a Piece as this cannot
but greatly please and divert, as well as instruct the Audience. Nor
is it, I imagine, from want of Knowledge of the Rules of Writing,
nor of sufficient Genius, in which this Nation abounds, that so few
Comedies, distinguish'd by these Perfections, have been produc'd: But
this Defect arises partly from this, that the Comick Poets are often
Men of loose Manners, and therefore unlikely Persons to undertake the
Promotion and Encouragement of Vertue, of which they have no Taste,
and to discountenance Imprudence and Immorality, when by doing so,
they must expose their own Character to derision; tho sometimes it may
happen, that a loose Poet as well as Preacher, merely from his just
Manner of Thinking, and his Sense of Decency in forming Discourses
becoming his Character, may entertain the Audience with laudab