any account, he connects the idea of the fame cause with any great diftrefs. This fhews with what propriety Shakespeare makes King Lear, whofe fufferings were owing to his daughters, fpeak to Edgar, disguised like a lunatic, in the following manner : What, have his daughters brought him to this pass? And Macduff, He hath no children. MACBETH. Writers not really feeling the paffions they des fcribe, and not being mafters of the natural expreffion of them, are apt, without their being aware of it, to make perfons under the influence of a ftrong emotion or paffion, speak in a manner that is very unfuitable to it. Sometimes, for inftance, they feem rather to be defcribing the paffion of another, than expreffing their own. Sometimes the language of perfons, in interefting circumftances, fhows fuch an excurfion of mind from the principal object, as demonftrates that their minds were not fufficiently engroffed with it. And fometimes, aiming to ftrike and aftonish, they make their he¬ roes ufe fuch language as is expreffive of no paffion whatever, but is quite extravagant and abfurd. The French dramatic writers are most commonly guilty of the first impropriety. Seldom con ceiving ceiving the force of a real paffion, they declaim upon the subject in fuch a ftyle as an observer might poffibly use, but which would never occur to a perfon really interested. In Corneille there are few inftances of a just expreffion of paffion. The generality of readers, being little interested in fuch representations, are not apt to attend to the impropriety; but every perfon, upon reflection, would be fenfible that no perfon, really agitated with paffion, would exprefs himself as Voltaire hath made Titus do. O de ma paffion fureur defefperée. A& III. Scene 6. Even our Shakespeare himself, though no writer whatever hath fucceeded fo well in the language of the paffions, is fometimes deferving of cenfure in this respect; as when Conftance, in King John, fays to the meffenger that brought her a piece of disagreeable news, Fellow, be gone, I cannot brook thy fight: This news hath made thee a most ugly man. The fentiment and expreffion in the former line is perfectly natural, but that in the latter resembles too much the comment of a cool obferver. Of the fame kind, but much more extravagant, is the following paffage, which is part of the speech of Conftance, giving her reasons why the indulged her grief for the loss of her fon. Grief fills the room up of my abfent child, Puts Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, KING JOHN, Act IV. Scene 1. Shakespeare's talent for wit and humour, and the genius of the times in which he wrote, have, upon many occafions, betrayed him into the fecond impropriety, which is, to make perfons under ftrong emotions fpeak, as if their minds were not fufficiently engroffed with the principal object of their concern. Would even a child, apprehenfive of having his eyes inftantly burned out, speak as he hath reprefented young Arthur to have fpoken, in order to perfuade his executioner to defift from his purpofe? In good footh the fire is dead with grief, KING JOHN, A& IV. Scene 1. " More improbable ftill is it that King John, in the agonies of death, and with his ftomach and bowels inflamed with intenfe heat, would pun and quibble in the manner that Shakespeare reprefents him to have done; and that, when he was not able to procure any thing to cool his inward heat, he fhould fay, I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait, A& V. Scene 9. If we censure those writers who represent perfons as speaking in a manner unsuitable to their fituation, with much more reafon may we cenfure those who represent perfons as thinking and speaking in a manner unfuitable to any character, or any circumftances whatever? Among these unnatural fentiments we may rank the avowing, or open undisguised proposal, of wicked purposes: because human nature is fo conftituted, that direct vice and wickedness is univerfally shocking. For this reafon men seldom entertain the thought of it in their own minds, much less propose it to others, but either under the appearance of virtue, or of fome great advantage, and with fome falvo for the immorality of it, With admirable propriety doth King John hint to Hubert how much he would oblige him if he would remove prince Arthur out of his way. But the following foliloquy of the Bastard Falconbridge, in the fame play, is certainly unnatural. Well, while I am a beggar I will rail, KING JOHN, Act II. Scene 6, In a much more unnatural and extravagant manner is Lady Macbeth reprefented talking to herself when she is projecting the death of the king. Macbeth, Act: 1. Scene 7. Inftances and acquainted with every thing that can be advanced for or against the question in debate; who is poffeffed even of a redundancy of proof for what he advances; and who is, moreover, perfectly candid and unprejudiced, willing to allow all the weight he can to the pleas of his adversaries. From the principle of sympathy, which is natural to the human mind, we univerfally feel ourfelves difpofed to conform to the feelings, the fentiments, and every thing belonging to the fituation of those we converfe with, and particularly of all those persons who engage much of our attention. If, therefore, no prejudice intervene, we always feel ourselves more or lefs difpofed to adopt the opinions of those persons with whom we have frequent intercourse. Confequently, we are, in all cafes, more difposed to give our affent to any propofition, if we perceive that the person who contends for it is really in earnest, and believes it himfelf. Indeed, prior to our hearing any arguments, we are naturally inclined to suppose, that a strong conviction and persuasion in other persons could not be produced without a fufficient caufe; from being sensible that a like strong persuasion is founded upon fufficient reafons in ourselves. The ideas of strong perfuafion and of truth being, on this account, intimately affociated together, the one will introduce the other, fo that whatever manner of addrefs tends to demonftrate that the advocate for |