108 ——— On Dramatic Reprefentations. 
dramatic reprefentations to engage us. For notwith- 
ftanding a critic of Dr. Johnfon’s name (whofe heat 
and imagination, however, appear from numerous 
inftances to have been very intractable to the efforts 
of fiction) has thought fit to treat the fuppofed 
jllufion of the theatre with ridicule, I eannot but 
be convinced of the exiftence of what I have fo 
often myfelf felt, and feen the effects of in others; 
and if the point were to be decided by authority, 
I might confidently repofe on that of the judicious 
Horace, who charaéterifes his mafter of the drama, 
as one, 
qui pegtus inaniter angit, 
Irritat, mulcet, falfis terroribus implet 
Ut magus; & modo me Thebis, medo ponit Athenis 
Bus; 2 P ‘ 
—_o 
The notion of atemporary delufion produced by the 
imitative arts, and particularly by the drama, is, I obferve, 
Supported by Dr. Darwin, in the ingenious profe Interludes 
of his Loves of the Plants; and by arguments fo fimilar to 
thofe here made ufe of, that it will be proper for me to fay, 
that this fhort Effay was written fome years before the 
appearance of that beautiful poem, The writer whom Dr, 
Darwin combats on this occafion, is Sir Jofhua Rey- 
nolds, who feems implicitly to have adopted the opinion 
of his friend Dr, Johnfon, 
J. AIKIN, 
On 
