They shook Athens with their discourses, as their theatrical works shook the theatre itself.

If they turned to France in the time of Louis the Fourteenth--that era which is the classical history of that country--they would find that it was referred to by all Frenchmen as the golden age of the drama there.

And also in England in the time of Queen Elizabeth the drama was at its highest pitch, when the nation began to mingle deeply and wisely in the general politics of Europe, not only not receiving laws from others, but giving laws to the world, and vindicating the rights of mankind.

(Cheers.) There have been various times when the dramatic art subsequently fell into disrepute.

Its professors have been stigmatized, and laws have been passed against them, less dishonourable to them than to the statesmen by whom they were proposed, and to the legislators by whom they were adopted.