94. 



excused for adopting his words here, in order to shew that 

 the mind which has been accustomed to high wrought scenes 

 of distress, and which is made " trembhngly alive" to the 

 representation of fictitious sorrows, will be incapable of af- 

 fording that useful and active sympathy, which it is neces- 

 sary to exert, in order to relieve the less shining miseries of real 

 life'. " Exhibitions of fictitious distress tend to strengthen 

 those passive impressions which counteract beneficence. The 

 scenes into which the novelist introduces us, are, in general, 

 perfectly unlike those which occur in the world. As his ob- 

 ject is to please, he removes from his descriptions every cir- 

 cumstance that is disgusting, and presents us with histories 

 of elegant and dignified distress. It is not such scenes that 

 human life exhibits. We have to act with the mean, the illi- 

 terate, the vulgar, and the profligate. The perusal of ficti- 

 tious history ^has a tendency to encrease that disgust which 

 \ve naturally feel at the concomitants of distress, and to cul- 

 tivate a false refinement of taste, inconsistent with our con- 

 dition, as members of society ; — nay, it is possible for this 

 refinement to be carried so far, as to withdraw a man from 

 the duties of life, and even from the sight of those distresses 

 which he might alleviate; and accordingly many are to be 

 found, who, if the situations of romance were realised, would 

 not fail to display the virtues of their favourite characters, 

 whose sense of duty is not sufficiently strong to engage tlu?ni 

 in the huluble and private scenes of human misery." 



