This letter puts me in mind of the following advertisement in a late Daily Advertiser, 'Whereas Thomas Toovey, snuffman, who is lately removed from the Blackamoor's Head in Piccadilly, to the shop, late the Crown and Dagger, three doors lower, and hopes for the continuance of his friends' custom' -And there it ends. I should have been more obliged to my correspondent, if after his Whereas that he was an Englishman, a Patriot, a Freeholder, &c. he had thought proper to inform me to what purpose he was all this. But I have the pleasure of hoping that this epistle is only an introductory discourse to a larger work: and as such I have given it to the public without addition or amend ment. SIR, "IF it would not be meddling with religion, a subject which you have declared against touching upon, I wish you would recommend it to all rectors, vicars, and curates of parishes, to omit the prayer, commonly used in the pulpit before sermon, the petition for Jews, Turks, and Infidels. For as the Jews, since a late act of parliament, are justly detested by the whole nation; and as it is shrewdly suspected that a bill is now in agitation for naturalizing the Turks, wise men are of opinion that it is no business of ours to be continually recommending such people in our prayers. Indeed as for the Infidels, who are only our own people, I should make no scruple of praying for them, if I did not know that persons of fashion do not care to hear themselves named so very particularly in the face of the congregation. I have the honour of an acquaintance with a lady of very fine understanding, who assures me that the above-mentioned prayer is absolutely as terrible to her as being churched in pub lic: for that she never hears the word Infidel mentioned from the pulpit, without fancying herself the stare of the whole rabble of believers. "As it is certainly the duty of a clergyman to avoid giving offence to his parishioners; and as our hatred to the Jews, our alarms about the Turks, and the modesty of persons of quality, are not to be overcome, I beg that you will not only insert this letter in the World, but that you will also give it as your opinion that the petition should be omitted. "I am, SIR, "Your most humble servant, "" MR. FITZ-ADAM, "Now the theatres are open, and the town is in high expectation of seeing Pantomimes performed to the greatest advantage, it would not be improper if you would give us a paper upon that subject. Your predecessor the Spectator, and the Tatler before him, used frequently to animadvert upon theatrical entertainments; but as those gentlemen had no talents for Pantomime, and were partial to such entertainments as themselves were able to produce, they treated the nobler compositions with unwarrantable freedom. Happy is it for us, that we live in an age of taste, when the dumb eloquence, and manual wit and humour of Harlequin is justly preferred to the whining of tragedy, or the vulgarity of comedy. But it grieves me, in an entertainment so near perfection, to observe certain indelicacies and indecorums, which, though they never fail of obtaining the approbation of the galleries, must be extremely offensive to the politeness of the boxes. The indelicacies I mean, are, the frequent and significant wrigglings of Harlequin's tail, and the affront that Pierot is apt to put upon the modesty of Columbine, by sometimes supposing, in his searches for her lover, that she has hid him under her petticoats. That such a supposition would be allowable in comedy, I am very ready to own; the celebrated Mrs. Behn having given us in reality what is here only supposed. In a play of that delicate lady's, the wife, to conceal the gallant from her husband, not only hides him under her petticoats, but, as Trulla did by Hudibras, straddles over him, and, holding her husband in discourse, walks backwards with her lover to the door; where with a genteel love-kick she dismisses him from his hiding place. But that the chaste Columbine should be suspected of such an indelicacy, or that Pierot should be so audacious as to attempt the examination of premises so sacred, is a solecism in Pantomime. Another impurity that gives me almost equal offence, is Harlequin's tapping the neck or bosom of his mistress, and then kissing his fingers. I am apprehensive that this behaviour is a little bordering upon wantonness; which, in the character of Harlequin, who is a foreigner, and a fine gentleman, and every thing agreeable, is as absurd as it is immodest. 6 "When these reformations can be brought about, every body must allow that a Pantomime will be a most rational and instructive entertainment; and it is to be hoped that none but principal performers will be suffered to have a part in it. How pleased will the town be this winter to read in one of the articles of news in the Public Advertiser, We hear that at each of the theatres royal there is an entire new Pantomime now in rehearsal, and the principal parts are to be performed by Mr. Garrick, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Mossop, Mrs. Cibber, and Mrs. Pritchard, at Drury Lane: and at Covent-Garden by Mr. Quin, Mr. Lun, Mr. Barry, Miss Nossiter,' It is not to be doubted that a Pantomime so &c. acted would run through a whole season to the politest as well as most crowded audiences. Indeed, I have often wondered at the good-humour of the town, that they can bear to see night after night so elegant an entertainment with only one performer in it of real reputation. "It was very well observed by a person of quality, 'That if Mr. Addison, Doctor Swift, and Mr. Pope were alive, and were unitedly to write a pantomime every winter, provided Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Cibber were to do the principal parts, he verily believed there would not be a hundred people at any one rout in town, except it was of a Sunday.' If it be from no other consideration than this, I am for having Pantomimes exhibited to the best advantage: and though we have no such wits among us as his lordship was pleased to name, we are reckoned to have as good carpenters as any age has produced; and I take it, that the most striking beauties of Pantomimical composition are to be ascribed to the carpenter, more than to the wit. "I am, ŞIR, "Your constant reader and most humble servant, "S. W." No. 44. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1753. TO MR. FITZ-ADAM. ઃઃ SIR, "A JUSTLY-admired poet of our own times, speaking in reference to his art, tells us, that True wit is nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd. "The same, it is presumed, may be said of almost every kind of writing. Europe is at present so much enlightened, that it is hardly possible to strike out a single notion absolutely new, or which has never been touched upon by somebody before us. Religion, philosophy, and morality in particular, have been so thoroughly canvassed, that such as would treat upon those subjects now, have scarce any thing left them, but to set some beaten thought in a different light, and, like a skilful cook, endeavour to make the fare of yesterday palatable again to-day, by a various dressing. If it can be got down, and digested, there are always hopes of its conveying some nourishment; and whether it be taken for turtle or venison, pheasant or moor-game, beef or mutton, is not a farthing's matter, so it be relished by the guests. Whether I am possessed of any part of this skill, must be left to the decision of each person's taste. All I dare engage for is, that no unwholesome ingredient shall enter into my composition, and if, on the one hand, it should be insipid, on the other, it shall be as harmless as a bit of dry bread. "But to my subject. The comparison of man's life to a journey, and the conclusions usually drawn from thence are not the less true for being trite and common. When we reflect, that to be excessively anxious for the wealth, honours, and pleasures of this transitory world, is just as ridiculous as it would be to torment ourselves because our accomodations at an inn, which we are to quit the next morning, are not sufficiently sumptuous, the aptness of the allusion stares us in the face: the assent is extorted while the mind dwells upon it; and people of every |