Afterwards, in the time of Augustus, when they were sent for to Rome, for the diversions of the people, whom he had enslaved, they played comedies without songs or vocal utterance, but by the sprightliness, activity, and efficacy of their gestures; or, as Sidonius Apollinaris expresses it, “clausis faucibus, et loquente gestu.”  They not only exhibited things and passions, but even the most delicate distinctions of passions, and the slightest circumstances of facts.  We must not, however, imagine, at least, in my opinion, that the pantomimes did literally represent regular tragedies or comedies by the mere motions of their bodies.  We may justly determine, notwithstanding all their agility, their representations would, at last, be very incomplete:  yet we may suppose, with good reason, that their action was very lively, and that the art of imitation went great lengths, since it raised the admiration of the wisest men, and made the people mad with eagerness.  Yet, when we read that one Hylas, the pupil of one Pylades, in the time of Augustus, divided the applauses of the people with his master, when they represented Oedipus; or when Juvenal tells us, that Bathillus played Leda, and other things of the same kind, it is not easy to believe that a single man, without speaking a word, could exhibit tragedies or comedies, and make starts and bounds supply the place of vocal articulation.  Notwithstanding the obscurity of this whole matter, one may know what to admit as certain, or how far a representation could be carried by dance, posture and grimace.  Among these artificial dances, of which we know nothing but the names, there was, as early as the time of Aristophanes, some extremely indecent.  These were continued in Italy from the time of Augustus, long after the emperours.  It was a publick mischief, which contributed, in some measure, to the decay and ruin of the Roman empire.  To have a due detestation of those licentious entertainments, there is no need of any recourse to the fathers; the wiser pagans tell us, very plainly, what they thought of them.  I have made this mention of the mimi and pantomimes, only to show how the most noble of publick spectacles were corrupted and abused, and to conduct the reader to the end through every road, and through all the by-paths of human wit, from Homer and Eschylus to our own time.

7.  WANDERINGS OF THE HUMAN MIND IN THE BIRTH, AND PROGRESS OF THEATRICAL REPRESENTATIONS.

That we may conclude this work by applying the principles laid down at the beginning, and extended through the whole, I desire the reader to recur to that point, where I have represented the human mind as beginning the course of the drama.  The chorus was first a hymn to Bacchus, produced by accident; art brought it to perfection, and delight made it a publick diversion.  Thespis made a single actor play before the people; this was the beginning of theatrical shows.  Eschylus, taking the idea of the Iliad and Odyssey, animates,