[ 46 ] 



'■• fluence of which may not prove very compatible with the tnd- 

 " notonous tranquillity of modern flates." — Nor are the German 

 produdions contented with the difpofing us to view fuch charac- 

 ters with complacency ; they lead us to imitate them ; and they 

 tend to roufe and Simulate fuch charaders to adion, and prepare 

 them for feme theatre, where they may difplay their dangerous 

 energies. Thefe effedls are produced, by venting, as I have faid, 

 the poifon of anarchy, under the femblance of bold and hardy 

 truths, refpeding government and religion ; and by introducing 

 topics of declamation, calculated to render men diffatisfied with 

 their prefent ftate, diCaffeded towards the conftitution, and order 

 K)f things, under which they live, and even hoftile to all civil infli- 

 tutions. Social ordinances and human reftraints of adion are de- 

 cried, as means of depreffing the man of feeling and gencrofity, 

 the genius, and the hero, for the benefit of the fool, the mifer, 

 the coward and the (lave. Civil polity and forms of government 

 are the themes of fatire ; and their defeds and inconveniences are 

 often tatioufly difplayed and fludioufly exaggerated ; fovereigns and 

 their minifters are depided, as monfters of vice and inhumanity, the 

 natural enemies and fcourges of their fellow creatures. While the 

 mind of the reader is foured and blackened, by thefe gloomy and dif- 

 gufting pidures ; he is inftigated to the wildeft excefs of paffion, by 

 declamations, that decorate, with the luxuriant ornaments of fancy, 

 every fpecies of criminality, every form of madnefs, and folly; and 

 reprefent ferocious jealoufy, mortal hatred, fanguinary vengeance, 

 fuicide, and murder, as the marks, or the efFeds of a manly and ener- 

 getic 



