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On the CHOICE ef SUBJECTS for TRAGEDY. 

 By WILLIAM PRESTON, J?^; M.R.LA. 



1 PERCEIVE by the tendency of a late queftion, which the Read, Jan. 

 Academy has thought fit to propound, on the fubjed of German '"'"' '^°°' 

 literature, that fome among you are not difpofed to bow with 

 idolatrous humility before the golden calf of commonly re- 

 ceived opinion. I fhall therefore, without further preface, ven- 

 ture to lay before the Committee of Polite Literature, whom 

 I beg leave to confider as the natural guardians of the in- 

 fant tafle and undireded and unfupported genius of this 

 country, a few brief and hafty obfervations on a critical re- 

 mark, which, as it appears in a literary journal of fome credit 

 and refpedability, may pafs unqueftioned by many readers. 

 An implicit deference to the arbitrary fentence of felf-eredled 

 authority is a« incompatible with the interefts of pure tafte, 

 as it is fubverfive of the fpirit of i:rue religion and true mo- 

 rality. 



■ ( A 2 ) The ' 



