46 Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns, 



halves; I love Knight-errantry too well to be thoroughly 

 republican, and if I was by chance to ' find an Heroe's 

 nest ' I do 7iot think I shd. have the heart to ' break the 

 eggs.' The world in general is apt to be dazzled by the 

 trophies of a conqueror, but I know not how it is, I feel 

 interested in Koscuisko's misfortunes to a degree that all 

 the triumphs of successful heroism hardly ever yet excited 

 in me." 



" Tuesd. 5th Septr. [1797]- Our party left us. I 

 went in the morng. to Bloxworth.84 Wrote to Smyth. ^5 

 .... Do you know — you may hate me for it but I cannot 

 help it that I do not like Tragedies, and be they ever so 

 moral I cannot conceive them to be of any utility to the 

 mind, but much otherwise. A Tragedy, not to be insipid, 

 must be wrought up to call forth and agitate the passions 

 in an extreme degree ; to very few constitutions this extra- 

 ordinary degree of effervescence is at all necessary, it is 

 applying a violent operative where a gentle stimulus had 

 answered all the purpose and given less pain, and I do 

 believe from my heart that the seldomer our passions are 

 summon 'd into energy, the more they are suffered to remain 

 dormant, the better we shd. become, the wiser and the 

 happier. I am always provoked at myself for allowing my 

 feelings to be played upon in a theatre when if they are of 

 a generous nature they wd. have been called forth to so 

 much better purpose in the wider theatre of human life, of 



human woes, and human virtues I cannot deny 



great chasteness of style, and considerable display of what 

 is called Knowledge of the World, to Miss Burney's^ 

 writings ; but — I cannot suppress iny deficiency of taste 

 perhaps — I am not partial to them. Averse to novel 

 reading in general, when I do relax from graver studies I 

 love to lose sight of all that Roscoe terms — ' the dull 



84 The residence of Thomas Pickard, who married Maria's sister 

 Harriet. (See footnote 7.) 



85 Probably Smyth: James Carmichael; b. 1741 ; one of George 

 III.'s physicians; d. 1821. 



86 Burney: Sarah Harriet; b. .?1770; novelist; d. 1844. 



