I 33 ] 



generous difpofitlon, and feels a fatisfadion, fuperior to all that 

 refults from the moft indulged voluptuoufnefs. So engaging 

 are the fympathetic feelings, and fuch the power of confcious 

 refledtion, to brighten up the face of forrow; that, as Dr. Hurd* 

 juftly obferves, it feems, that Providence, in compafrion to human 

 feelings, had, together with our forrows, infufed a kind of balm 

 into the mind, to temper and qualify, as it were, thefe bitter 

 ingredients. 



I PROCEED, now, to the other queftion. I have heard it afferted 

 that epic or dramatic produdions on fubjeds in which the horrible 

 or atrocious is eminently predominant, fhould be reprobated, 

 as a perverfion of the powers of poetry, unfavourable to the true 

 interefts of morality, and to the improvement of the human mind. 

 The advocates for this opinion contend that fuch narratives will, 

 moft probably, difguft, or, at leaft, fail to pleafe the refined and 

 judicious readers; and if it fhould happen to produce pleafure, 

 that pleafure muft, in fome degree, proceed from, or be accom- 

 panied by criminal, or at leaft unamiable emotions ; and, fre- 

 quently indulged, muft tend to make the nature ferocious. The 

 mind, familiarized with horrors, will gradually lofe its natural 

 deteftation of cruelty, and become hardened in ferocity, by 

 a recurrence of fentiments, and a repetition of fpedacles, that 

 outrage every tender feeling. Subjcds of this kind fhould be 

 covered with a veil, and configned to eternal oblivion ; inftead of 



Vol. VI. (E) their 



* Notes on Horace. 



