strokes, the pungent wit, and the malignity concealed under such wild flights as became the character of harlequin.  But though it so far resembled Aristophanes, our age is yet at a great distance from his, and the Italian comedy from his scenes.  But with respect to the liberty of censuring the government, there can be no comparison made of one age or comedy with another.  Aristophanes is the only writer of his kind, and is, for that reason, of the highest value.  A powerful state, set at the head of Greece, is the subject of his merriment, and that merriment is allowed by the state itself.  This appears to us an inconsistency; but it is true that it was the interest of the state to allow it, though not always without inconveniency.  It was a restraint upon the ambition and tyranny of single men, a matter of great importance to a people so very jealous of their liberty.  Cleon, Alcibiades, Lamachus, and many other generals and magistrates were kept under by fear of the comick strokes of a poet so little cautious as Aristophanes.  He was once, indeed, in danger of paying dear for his wit.  He professed, as he tells us himself, to be of great use by his writings to the state; and rated his merit so high as to complain that he was not rewarded.  But, under pretence of this publick spirit, he spared no part of the publick conduct; neither was government, councils, revenues, popular assemblies, secret proceedings in judicature, choice of ministers, the government of the nobles, or that of the people, spared.

The Acharnians, the Peace, and the Birds, are eternal monuments of the boldness of the poet, who was not afraid of censuring the government for the obstinate continuance of a ruinous war, for undertaking new ones, and feeding itself with wild imaginations, and running to destruction, as it did, for an idle point of honour.

Nothing can be more reproachful to the Athenians than his play of the Knights, where he represents, under an allegory, that may be easily seen through, the nation of the Athenians, as an old doting fellow tricked by a new man, such as Cleon and his companions, who were of the same stamp.

A single glance upon Lysistrata, and the Female Orators, must raise astonishment, when the Athenian policy is set below the schemes of women, whom the author makes ridiculous, for no other reason than, to bring contempt upon their husbands, who held the helm of government.

The Wasps is written to expose the madness of the people for lawsuits and litigations; and a multitude of iniquities are laid open.

It may easily be gathered, that, notwithstanding the wise laws of Solon, which they still professed to follow, the government was falling into decay, for we are not to understand the jest of Aristophanes in the literal sense.  It is plain that the corruption, though we should suppose it but half as much as we are told, was very great, for it ended in the destruction of Athens, which could scarce raise its head again,