53
general tiiXe, except in the index, which is,
Alique regule, and contains twenty-three tituli,
so numbered in Banck. There is nothing re*
markable in this portion^ except that it consists
strictly of Regular, without any Taxce, although
voL aiL p. 469y observes, he ^ was author of a great number of
oecaskmal piecesi and of twentj-soTen plays, mittoi bt the
space of twenly-fiye jeais: which aro stiU read with pleasure
and the general approbation of the iugsnloufl, notwithstanding
the soTere criticisms of many, that envied his exalted meiit^-»
and this» without the sUghtest aUusion to the notorious and re»
ToLtiiig profl^gaqr of a great portion of his productions I By way
ef apology ibr these offoices, it has sometimes been aUeged»
that his life was unstahied, which, if trae in the very limited
sense in which it can be^ is only to say, that he was not impelled
to write wickedly by headstrong passion, but hired so to do by
hope of gain or bad popularity^hia vice was without even the
low extenuation of natural and appropnate temptation* If the
morality and necessitiea of Borne were unknown^ we should
wondier at the degradation to which she wiU stoop Ibr an al^ $
and theftct, that her sons xeftue not libatioas to their goddess
from the foulest kennels of human depravity would appear incro-
dible, were it not notoiious, that a son of Anacveon, in whose
heart libertinism and inhumanity appear to contend fat pre-
eadnence, has been publicly accepted and accredited aa a worthy
advocate of the Holy Boman catholic church. A crown waa
wanting to the pieces tin the power of diq>enaing national re<
ward was prostituted to the bestowal of a pension on the coi^
mpter of public morals and the heartless deiider of the perse*
euted Protestant deigy of his conntiy.
Weieitnotsolong^ I could with pleasure transcribe a part
of the speedi of the Bev. H. O'SuUivan at the Protestant Meet*
ing in the Shire HaU, Heiefoiid» Sept S, ISSfi; on asulijeet so
edifying as the tmeident Anacreon of modern England, or the
bish gentieman in search of n rdigion yet to seek. But I wiU
do my best to extend the dienlation of the concfaidiDg portion.
f3
