On Tragical Representations. 327 
can give us no interest in them, nor render them 
at all attracting to us. 
The celebrated David Hume has offered a 
more plausible theory ; or rather, has added to 
the systems of Du Bos and Fontenelle; by re- 
ferring the greatest part of that pleasure, which 
springs out of the bosom of uneasiness, and yet 
retains all the features and symptoms of distress 
and sorrow, to the bewitching power of that 
eloquence, with which the melancholy scene is 
represented. The effect, he says, is like to the 
composition of two forces, which, combining to-= 
gether, produce a new direction, a direction not 
contrary to that of either, but partaking of 
both. 
Of these four illustrations of the question, the 
first and the last, viz. of Du Bos and Hume, 
require a particular discussion, in the progress 
of which, the truth will probably unfold its 
self. ; 
‘It isa misfortune, in moral as in natural phi- 
losophy, that the theory, which is to account 
for important phenomena, is often the creature~ 
of a bold and lively imagination, and not the 
modest result of* careful observation and expe- 
riment. As a theory, which is built on this 
solid ground of observation and experiment, ° 
will always follow us downwards to the explana-~ 
tion of facts ; so every fanciful system is found 
VOL. V B 
