Regularity wou'd be too Vertuous for the Age; and I don't doubt but
the Beaux and Poetasters wou'd be full of Exclamation: For it wou'd be
a dreadful Time if the Ladies should regard the Play more than their
Beaux Airs; and how wou'd _Vanbroug_ be able to pass a Comedy on them,
if they shou'd once be so nice in their Taste as to disgust Obscenity;
this indeed wou'd be a Vexation, and such a Delicacy which Mr.
_Congreve_ cou'd not be pleased with: And if the Town shou'd be so
refin'd to admit of nothing but what is Natural, we can't expect that
ever he will gratifie us with another Tragedy. _Durfey_ and _Motteux_
wou'd write no more Farces; _Guildon_ and _Tom_. _Brown, &c._ wou'd be
the Saints with wry Mouthes and scrue'd Faces: Mr. _Guildon_ indeed
has Philosophy enough to support himself under such a Calamity, and
knows a Method to prevent starving; for who can think that he who writ
_Blunt_'s Life can be at a loss for a decent dispatch of his own? 'Tis
a deplorable Case, indeed, and I pity a Man who cannot get Bread by
Writing, and yet must beg or starve without it.

The Prince of _Conti_ believ'd the _French_ Stage wou'd not have been
so bad if the Priests had begun sooner to declaim against it: It is
possible that some of our Defects may be owing to such a Negligence.
However 'tis never too late to mend; and since Mr. _Collier_ has took
up the Cudgels, I wish the rest of the same Coat wou'd so far as is
just and reasonable, stand his Second: He has his Faults, but they are
such as I wou'd not have lost his Book for. I know there are some
violent Wits, who will not allow him either Wit or Style, but, in
plain terms, to be a Fool. I hope none of them will go about to prove
it. I confess he has kept ill Company of late; but surely they don't
ground a Conjecture upon that, especially when a Man only converses to
convince. The naming Mr. _Durfey_, or examining his Works, is not so
contagious as to stain a Man's Reputation. We are indeed to answer for