96 On Dramatic Reprefeniations, 
On the Impreffion of Reality attending Dramatic 
Reprefentations, by J. Amin, M. D.i— 
Communicated by Dr. Prrcivat. 
Read Oéfober 7. 
R. Johnfon, in his Preface to Shakefpear, 
excufes that great poet's violation of the 
Dramatic Unities, and argues againft the law by 
which they have been enjoined, upon this princi- 
ple—That as, in fact, we are never fo deceived by 
a dramatic reprefentation, as to believe it real, 
there is no danger of injuring its effect by any thing 
which may tend to deftroy fuch a belief. And he 
feems to triumph not a little, in expofing the ab- 
furdity of an imagined conviction, that a fcene 
paffing before our eyes is real, when we are all the 
time confcious that it began in fiction. 
But it appears to me, that in this inftance (as 
perhaps in many others) the critic has taken a 
very narrow furvey of the human mind, and has 
only fkimmed the furface for that truth which lay 
‘fomewhat deeper. The queftion refpecting the 
nature of that feeling which a {cene of fiction excites 
in us, muft be determined bya reference to the ge- 
neral mode in which the mind receives impref- 
fions. Now, I fhall attempt to fhew, that although 
the 
