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Euripides, however, more particularly. In the drama of the 

 former, the woes of Oedipus, of Eledra, and perhaps more than 

 either, the awakened tendernefs and felf-condemnation of Deia- 

 nira, lay claim to and engage all our fenfibility. The fplendour 

 and elegance of the poetry, the judicious feledion of the fable, 

 and peculiar corrednefs of tafte for which this poet has been fo 

 juftly celebrated, muft be obvious to the moft carclefs obferver. 

 In Euripides, the poet of the heart, we are charmed with the 

 eafy and artlefs fimplicity of his didion, the elevated yet appro- 

 priate fentiments of each chorus, and the mild philofophy of 

 Socrates which glides through and enriches the whole. The tra- 

 gedies of ^'Efchylus wear a different from ; irregular, often extra- 

 vagant, more fublime and magnificent in his conceptions than 

 either of his rivals j it is not the dignified fufterings of Hercules, 

 the folitudcs of Lemnos re-echoing to the anguilh of Philodetes, 

 tlie unhappy pafllon of Phaedra, or the graceful and rcfigned 

 tendernefs of Alceftis, that folicit the exertions of his mufe. A 

 prcdiledion for whatever was auguft, awful and commanding, for 

 thofe fubjefls which were almoft hid in antiquity, and by the 

 developement of which he could pour new hght on the hiftory 

 and manners of his countrymen, feem to pervade almoft the 

 whole of his favourite compofitions. In his Prometheus, the 

 gloom, the dread uncertainty which reign through part of that 

 fublime performance, the indiftindl idea which we have of feme 

 of the objeds of the dialogue, give an air of folemnity and 

 grandeur to it, no lefs impofing than the unappalled humanity of 

 Prometheus, and the introdudion of the daughter of Inachus, 

 muft have been flattering to the prejudices, the tafte and ardent 

 feelings of an Athenian audience. So attached was he to this 



fubjedt. 



