radically vitious; but as it makes
labour pass as a substitute for genius, by transferring expression from
its natural organs to the limbs, and making attitude and action the
chief representatives of the passions and the feelings, it not only
fascinates because it catches the eye, but is adopted because extremely
convenient to the vast majority of young adventurers on the stage, who,
possessing neither the feelings fit for the profession, nor the organs,
nor the genius to express them if they had, are glad to find a
substitute for both. Hence the system of Mr. Kemble has spread like a
plague--infected the growing race of actors, mixed itself with the very
life-blood of the art, and extended its contagion through every new
branch, even to the very last year's bud. Thus Mr. Kemble is imitated by
those who never saw him. Let us tell Master Payne that it is the very
worst school he could go to, this of the statuary. It is as much
inferior to the old one--to that of Garrick, Barry, Mossop, and nature,
as the block of marble from which the Farnesian Hercules was hewed, is
to the god himself. Of its superiority we need urge no farther proof
than that of Mr. Cooke, who, though assuredly inferior to several of the
old stock, and groaning under unexampled intemperance, has in spite of
every impediment which artful jealousy and envy of his talents could
raise against him, risen so high in public estimation, that even when
just reeking from offences which would not have been endured in Garrick
or Barry, his return is hailed with shouts, as if it were a national
triumph. And why?--because he is of the old school, and scorns the
cajolery of statue-attitude and stage-trick.

[Footnote 1: Had Mr. Cooper entered on the profession in the days of
Garrick, we are persuaded he would, with the advantage of that great
man as a model, and the scientific Macklin as an instructor, have been
one of the first actors that ever existed.]

We speak thus freely to Master Payne because we think he has talents
worth the interposition of criticism, and if we speak at all, must speak
the whole truth. The praise we give him might well be distrusted, if
from any false delicacy we slurred over his defects and errors. The most
dangerous rock in his way will be adulation. Sincerely we wish him to be
assured that those who mix their applause with a proper alloy of censure
are his best friends. Indiscriminate flatterers are no better than the
snake whi