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volution, and the ephemeral produdlions, which fucceflively 

 appear in its prefent hour of degradation, afford melancholy 

 proofs that the favourable reception of the public is now no 

 longer an unequivocal teft of intrinfic merit The prevailing 

 rage for the immoral and extravagant produdlions of the German 

 fchool puts this affertion paft all difpute. 



There is, indeed, one obje(5tIon to the choice of fubjetfls 

 too near the prefent time, which has confiderable weight, 

 namely, that, in gi neral, fidlion muft be employed for the 

 purpofe of fitting fubjedls taken from real life for dramatic 

 reprefentation, and the mind naturally revolts againft the ufe 

 of fiflion where the tranfadlions are fo recent that the pub- 

 lic mind is in poireffion of all their circumftances ; but if the 

 events fliould happen in themfelves to be fo grand, fo affect- 

 ing, fo full of truly interefting incidents, as to furnith a tra- 

 gic fable fufliciently detailed and diverfified, without the ne- 

 ceffity of reforting to invented circumftances of embellifhment 

 or interel^, the obfervation,' incredidus odi no longer applies, 

 and our knowledge of the reality of the tranfaction, and the 

 newnefs and frefhnefs of the concomitant emotions, which it 

 has already excited, will encreafe the intereft and pathos. 



The Greek tragic writers, if their example has any weight, 

 were fond of compofing tragedies on political fubjeds. A re- 

 ference 



