difficulty in hearing what fell from the weakest utterance. All
objects were thus drawn nearer to the sense; every painted scene was
stronger; every grand scene and dance more extended; every rich or
fine-coloured habit had a more lively lustre. Nor was the minutest
motion of a feature (properly changing from the passion or humour it
suited) ever lost, as they frequently must be in the obscurity of
too great a distance. And how valuable an advantage the facility
of hearing distinctly is to every well-acted scene, every common
spectator is a judge. A voice scarce raised above the tone of a
whisper, either in tenderness, resignation, innocent distress, or
jealousy suppress'd, often have as much concern with the heart as
the most clamorous passions; and when on any of these occasions
such affecting speeches are plainly heard, or lost, how wide is the
difference from the great or little satisfaction received from them?
To all this the master of a company may say, I now receive ten pounds
more than could have been taken formerly in every full house. Not
unlikely. But might not his house be oftener full if the auditors were
oftener pleas'd? Might not every bad house, too, by a possibility of
being made every day better, add as much to one side of his account as
it could take from the other."

The latter portion of Colley's remarks will be echoed by our own
audiences, which are so often doomed to see the most delicate of plays
acted in barns of theatres where all the sensitive effects of dialogue
and action are swallowed up in the immensity of stage and auditorium.
There is nothing more dispiriting, indeed, both to performers and
spectators, than the presentation of some comedy like the "School for
Scandal" in a house far better suited to the picturesque demands of
the "Black Crook" or the "County Circus."