" To repeal, therefore, an act nugatory in itself,
would not add to the reputation of the profession, nor give a license to
further abuse; but it would be an act of justice, and remove a prejudice
unjustly attached to the professors of a difficult art.
The critical pen of Mrs. Inchbald justly remarks, "To the honour of
a profession long held in contempt by the wise--and still contemned
by the weak--Shakspeare, the pride of Britain, was a player." To the
illustrious bard, the modern drama is indebted for its excellence. His
writings will remain for ever the grandest monument of a genius which
opened to him the whole heart of man, all the mines of fancy, all the
stores of nature, and gave him power beyond all other writers, to move,
astonish, and delight mankind. In the drama, the most interesting
emotions are excited; the dangerous passions of hate, envy, avarice, and
pride, with all their innumerable train of attendant vices, are detected
and exposed. Love, friendship, gratitude, and all those active and
generous virtues which warm the heart and exalt the mind, are held up
as objects of emulation. And what can be a more effectual method of
softening the ferocity, and improving the minds of the inconsiderate?
The heart is melted by the scene, and ready to receive an
impression--either to warn the innocent, or to appal the guilty; and
numbers of those who have neither abilities nor time for deriving
advantage from reading, are powerfully impressed through the medium
of the eyes and ears, with those important truths which while they
illuminate the understanding, correct the heart.
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