[ 3S 1 



nefles of their operation, can poffefs but fmall powers of reduc- 

 tion : they are thofe vices that tend to momentary gratification ; 

 they are thofe illicit p;dnons which are remotely allied, or faintly 

 fimilar, to virtuous emotions, (as luft to love, pride to magna- 

 nimity, ferocity to courage, profufion to generofity) that are 

 capable of being reprefented in alluring colours, and poffefs, 

 an unhappy power of fafcination ; and it is only the exhibition 

 of fuch emotions, and their operation, that can be injurious to the 

 interefts of morality, and, of courfe, criminal in the writer or 

 the artifl. The refemblance, at firft fight, to virtues, deceives 

 the unwary mind, and tends to confufe the notions of right and 

 wrong; to erafe the bounds and divifions between vice and 

 virtue. The dazzling portraits of feducing objeds, and luxurious 

 pleafurcs, blind the judgment, and fill the heated imagination 

 with impure images. The popular applaufes, and the pleafures 

 that fometimes accompany vice and guilt, are immediately prefent ; 

 their mifchievous confeqnences, the future pain, remorfe and 

 calamity, to which they lead, are remote, and concealed from 

 view. 



It is faid that a frequent repetition of fuch terrible fubjeds 

 as were not only reprefented frequently on the Grecian ftage, 

 but were its peculiar favourites, may familiarize the mind with 

 fcenes of horror, and leffen its natural tendernefs and fimilarity. 

 No : there is no danger that outrageous and cruel paffions fhould 

 become contagious. In their reprefentation the poifon will carry 

 with it its own antidote. The acute feelings, the dreadful ca- 



(E 2) taftrophes, 



