104- ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO in. 



Love sighs in sympathy, with pain combined, 

 And new-born Pity charms the kindred mind; 

 The enamour'd Sorrow every cheek bedews, 

 And TASTE impassion'd woos the tragic Muse. 



" The rtish-thatch'd cottage on the purple moor, 

 Where ruddy children frolic round the door, 

 The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak, 

 The shaggy locks that fringe the colt unbroke, 250 



The tragic Muse, 1. 246. Why we are delighted with the scenical 

 representations of Tragedy, which draw tears from our eyes, has been 

 variously explained by different writers. The same distressful circum- 

 stance attending an ugly or wicked person affects us with grief or dis- 

 gust ; but when distress occurs to a beauteous or virtuous person, the 

 pleasurable idea of beauty or of virtue becomes mixed with the pain- 

 ful one of sorrow and the passion of Pity is produced, which is a com- 

 bination of love or esteem with sorrow; and becomes highly interest- 

 ing to us by fixing our attention more intensely on the beauteous or 

 virtuous person. 



Other distressful scenes have been supposed to give pleasure to the 

 spectator from exciting a comparative idea of his own happiness, as 

 when a shipwreck is viewed by a person safe on shore, as mentioned 

 by Lucretius, L. 3. But these dreadful situations belong rather to 

 the terrible, or the horrid, than to the tragic ; and may be objects 

 of curiosity from their novelty, but not of Taste,' and must suggest 

 much more pain than pleasure. 



