in the Exercife of its Faculties. 129 
a young one, if, the feene being in a palace, the 
feeneries were to prefent trees and landfcapes 
to our view, if the dreffes did not correfpond, 
in fotne degree to the dignity of the perfons 
reprefented, all thefe difcordances would offend 
us. 
The fame is applicable to the deviation from 
the three unities. If, in a drama, the principal 
adlions are multiplied, if in the fpace of a few 
hours, many centuries are made to elapfe, if the 
fpectator is tranfported in an inftant, from one 
part of the world to another, all thefe abfurdities 
become fo many warnings againft the falfity of 
the fpectacle; and a voice feems to iffue out of 
them, which bids us, not to give fincere tears to 
feigned misfortunes. 
Such are the arguments of the critics, who 
follow the rules of Arifotle. Lord Kaims , on the 
other fide, proves, from the different nature of 
the Grecian, and the modern drama, that the 
unities of time and place are, by no means, fo 
neceffary with us, as they were with the ancients. 
The interruption of the reprefentation, on our 
theatre, between the different adts, gives the 
mind a facility of fuppofing any length of time, 
or change of place j and it becomes not more 
difficult for the fpedtator, at the beginning of 
an adt, to imagine a new place, or a different 
time, than it was at firff, to imagine himfelf at 
Athens , or in a period of time two thoufand years 
back. 
Vol. I. K But 
