They are much nearer to us in time than the men and women who figured on the stage in the reign of James I.But their nature is farther from our nature.

They sparkle but never warm.

They are witty but leave no impression.

I might almost go further, and say that they are wicked but never allure.

"When Voltaire came to visit the Great Congreve," says Thackeray, "the latter rather affected to despise his literary reputation; and in this, perhaps, the great Congreve was not far wrong.