"'Lord Bolingbroke and you agreed that we have not one good Tragedy.' VOLTAIRE.

"'We did think so.

CATO is incomparably well written: Addison had a great deal of taste;--but the abyss between taste and genius is immense! Shakspeare had an amazing genius, but no taste: he has spoiled the taste of the Nation.

He has been their taste for two hundred years; and what is the taste of a Nation for two hundred years will be so for two thousand.

This kind of taste becomes a religion; there are, in your Country, a great many Fanatics for Shakspeare.' SHERLOCK.