"Sempronius, in the second act, comes back once more in the same
morning to the governor's hall to carry on the conspiracy with
Syphax against the governor, his country, and his family: which is
so stupid that it is below the wisdom of the O---s, the Macs, and
the Teagues; even Eustace Commins himself would never have gone to
Justice-hall to have conspired against the Government. If officers
at Portsmouth should lay their heads together in order to the
carrying off J--- G---'s niece or daughter, would they meet in J---
G---'s hall to carry on that conspiracy? There would be no
necessity for their meeting there--at least, till they came to the
execution of their plot--because there would be other places to meet
in. There would be no probability that they should meet there,
because there would be places more private and more commodious. Now
there ought to be nothing in a tragical action but what is necessary
or probable.

"But treason is not the only thing that is carried on in this hall;
that, and love and philosophy take their turns in it, without any
manner of necessity or probability occasioned by the action, as duly
and as regularly, without interrupting one another, as if there were
a triple league between them, and a mutual agreement that each
should give place to and make way for the other in a due and orderly
succession.

"We now come to the third act. Sempronius, in this act, comes into
the governor's hall with the leaders of the mutiny; but as soon as
Cato is gone, Sempronius, who but just before had acted like an
unparalleled knave, discovers himself, like an egregious fool, to be
an accomplice in the conspiracy.