234 On Tragical Representations. 
conclusion, is ‘wide-as heaven and earth, when 
he adds: that if the object lays hold of some 
affection, the pleasure still rises upon us, by the 
_ conversion of this subordinate moment into that 
which is predominant. The predominant emo- 
tion he assumes to be the pleasure excited by 
the eloquence of the artist ;~ the affection laid 
hold upon is the painful sensation of the spec- 
tacle. Which of these two emotions is most 
likely to be predominant has been just now dis« 
cussed ; but that a pleasurable emotion of one 
kind should lay hold ofa painful emotion arising 
from a very different source, and derive aug 
mentation to itself from this combination, is an 
extraordinary: position ; and as contrary to the 
laws of naturecin the moral as in the material 
world. Whenever contraries act upon each 
other, diminution and not augmentation is the 
result.. The pain continues to be pain so long 
as the character of the representation is pre- 
served, and undergoes no conversion at all.— 
Eloquence, on whatever subject, is pleasing, _ 
but what then? If there were not some ‘other 
circumstance, some powerful law of our nature 
which attached us to, and gave us an interest in a 
subject highly painful; the pleasure merely arising 
from the display of talents would be less plea- 
sant, because counteracted every moment by 
what is painful; it must inasmuch as the pain 
