322 On Tragical Representations. 
in these—if there be a joy, it is of a singular 
kind : it wears all the dress of sorrow; and the 
heart feels that there is a pain more than pro- 
portioned to the joy. It is surely, therefore, 
unphilosophical, to reduce, under one class, 
propensities which are of so different a cast and 
influence ; nor can that ingenious French critic, 
the Abbé du Bos, be justified, in deriving them, 
without distinction, from one common source in 
the human mind, 
But whence then is derived, and how are we 
to account for, this strange intermixture of pain 
and a something like joy, excited, in the same 
instant, by the same object, each apparently de- 
pendant on each other, and yet not blended to- 
gether in one undistinguished mass.—Before I 
attempt the solution of this singular, but univer- 
sal character of man, it may not be amiss to take 
a brief view of some of the most celebrated 
theories on this subject, and the rather, as the 
examination of these mav lead to the true so- 
lution. 
The French critic just mentioned, the Abbé 
du Bos, whose reflections on poetry, painting, 
and music, form a very entertaining work, refers 
the solution of this difficulty to that aversion 
which we have to indolence ; and in consequence 
to the delight we feel in having our most active 
and lively passions roused. 
This account: is striking and bold, as it de= 
