TRAGEDY. 



paflions, as well as among the ideas of the mind, there is an 

 attraftion oi- afTociation. 3dly. Pain of every kind generally 

 makes a deeper imprellion on the imagination than pleafure 

 does, and is longer retained by the meinory. 4thly. From 

 a group of paflions aflbciated together, and having the fame 

 object, fome of them pleafant, and others painful ; if the 

 pleafant predominate, there arifes often a greater and a more 

 durable pleafure to the mind, than v/ould refult from thefe, 

 if alone and unmixed. 5thly. Under the name pity may be 

 included all the emotions excited by tragedy. It has been 

 ufual, however, to comprehend pity and terror under the 

 clafs of paflions that are moved by tragedy ; but our author 

 obferves, that this enumeration is more popular tlian philo- 

 fophical, though adopted by the Stagyrite himfelf. For 

 what is pity but a participation by fympathy in the woes of 

 others, and the feelings naturally confequent upon them, of 

 whatever kind they be, their fears as well as forrows : 

 whereas, this way of contradiftinguifliing terror from pity, 

 would make one, who knew nothing of tragedy but from 

 the definition, imagine, that it were intended to make us 

 compaflionate others in trouble, and dread mifchief to our- 

 felves. If this were really the cafe. Dr. Campbell thinks 

 there are few or iwne who would find any pleafure in this 

 fpecies of entertainment. If all the fympathetic affeftions 

 excited by theatrical reprefentations were enumerated, our 

 author cannot fee why hope, indignation, love and hatred, 

 gratitude and refentment, ftiould not be included as well as 

 tear. 6thly. Pity is not a fimple paflion, but a group of 

 paflions ftriftly united by aflbciation, and as it were blended, 

 by centering in the fame objeft. Of thefe, fome are plea- 

 fant, fome painful, but commonly the pleafant preponderate. 

 In pity there are three different emotions : Jiijl, commifera- 

 tion, purely painful ; fecondly, benevolence, or a deiire of 

 the relief and happinefs of the objeft pitied, a paflion, as was 

 already obferved, of the intermediate kind ; thirdly, love, 

 in which is always implied one of the nobleft and mod ex- 

 quifite pleafures whereof the foul is fufceptible, and which 

 is itfelf, in moil cafes, fufficient to give a counterpoife of 

 pleafure to the whole. 



The principal pleafure in pity arifes from its own nature, 

 or from the nature of thofe paflions of which it is com- 

 pounded, and not from any thing extrinfic or adventitious. 

 Neverthelefs, certain adventitious circumftances may contri- 

 bute to heighten the effeft ; but they cannot be regarded as 

 en"ential to the paflion. Of this fort is the fatisfaftion which 

 arifeth from a fenfe of our own eafe and fecurity, compared 

 with the calamity and the danger of another. 



" 'Tis pleafant, fafely to behold from fliore 

 The rowling fliip, and hear the tempeft roar : 

 Not that another's pain is our dehght ; 

 But pains unfelt produce the pleafmg fight. 

 'Tis pleafant alfo to behold from far 

 The moving legions mingled in the war." 



Another adventitious fource of pleafure is, the fatisfac- 

 tion that refults from the confcious exercife of the humane 

 affeftions, which it is our duty to cherilh and improve. 

 Senfe, as we have frequent occafion to obferve, invariably 

 makes a ftronger irapreflion than memory, and memory a 

 ftronger than imagination ; yet there are particular circum- 

 ftances which appear to form an exception, and to give an 

 efficacy to the ideas of imagination, beyond what either me- 

 mory or fenfe can boaft. So great is the anomaly which 

 fometimes difplays itfelf in human charafters, that it is not 

 impoflible to find perfons who are quickly made to cry at 

 feeing a tragedy, or reading a romance, which they know 

 to be fiftitious, and yet are both inattentive and unfeeling in 



Vof,. XXXVI. ^ 



refpeft of the aftual objefts of compafllon who live in their 

 neighbourhood, and are daily under their eye. 



Men, fays our author, may be of a felfith, contrafted, 

 and even avaricious difpofition, who are not what we ihould 

 denominate hard-hearted, or infufccptible of fympathetic 

 feeling. Such will gladly enjoy the luxury of pity, (as 

 Hawkefworth terms it,) when it nowife interferes with their 

 more powerful paflions ; that is, when it comes unaccom- 

 panied with a demand upon their pockets. With the tragic 

 or the romantic hero or heroine they moft cordially fympa- 

 thife, becaufe the only tribute which wretches of their dig- 

 nity exaft from them is fighs and tears. And of thefe their 

 confciences inform them, to their inexpreflible confolation, 

 that they are no niggards. But the cafe is totally different 

 with living objefts. Barren tears and fighs will not fatisfy 

 thefe. Hence it is that people's avarice, a mofl formidable 

 adverfary to the unhappy, is interefled to prevent their 

 being moved by fuch, and to make them avoid, as much as 

 poflible, every opportunity of knowing or feeing them. 

 See this obfervation admirably exemplified in the parable of 

 the companionate Samaritan, Luke, x. 30. Our author 

 concludes with obferving, that compafllon alone, efpecially 

 that difplayed on occafion of witnefling public fpeftacles, is 

 at beft but a very weak evidence of philanthropy. 



Dr. Blair, agreeing in the main with the hypothefis of 

 Dr. Campbell, introduces the following obfervations on this 

 fubjeft, which we cannot forbear tranfcribing. " By the 

 wife and gracious conftitution of our nature, the exercife of 

 all the focial paflions is attended with pleafure. Nothing is 

 more pleafing and gratetul than love and friendfhip. Where- 

 ever man takes a ftrong intereft in the concerns of his fellow- 

 creatures, an internal fatisfaftion is made to accompany tlie 

 feeling. Pity, or compafllon, in particular, is, for wife 

 ends, appointed to be one of the ftrongeft inftinfts of our 

 frame, and is attended with a peculiar attraftive power. 

 It is an affeftion which cannot but be produftive of fome 

 diftrefs, on account of the fympathy with the fufferers, 

 which it neceffarily involves. But, as it includes benevo- 

 lence and friendfhip, it partakes, at the fame time, of the 

 agreeable and pleafing nature of thofe affeftions. The heart 

 is warmed by kindnefs and humanity, at the fame moment 

 at which it is afflifted by the diftrefles of thofe with whom 

 it fympathifes : and the pleafure arifing from thofe kind 

 emotions prevails fo much in the mixture, and fo far coun- 

 terbalances the pain, as to render the ftate of the mind, 

 upon the whole, agreeable. At the fame time, the imme- 

 diate pleafure, which always goes along with the operation 

 of the benevolent and fympathetic affeftions, derives an ad- 

 dition from the approbation of our own minds. We are 

 pleafed with ourfelves for feeling as we ought, and for en- 

 tering, with proper forrow, into the concerns of the afflifted. 

 In tragedy, befides, other adventitious circumftances eoncur 

 to diminifh the painful part of fympathy, and to increafe 

 the fatisfaftion attending it. We are, in fome meafure, re- 

 lieved, by thinking that the caufe of our diftrefs is feigned, 

 not real ; and we are alfo gratified by the charms of poetry, 

 the propriety of fentiment and language, and the beauty of 

 aftion. From the concurrence of thele caufes, the pleafure 

 which we receive from tragedy, notwithftanding the diftrefs 

 it occafions, feems to me to be accounted for in a fatisfac- 

 tory manner. At the fame time, it is to be obferved, that, 

 as there is always a mixture of pain in the pleafure, that 

 pain is capable of being fo much heightened, by the repre- 

 fentation of incidents extremely direful, as to (hock our 

 feehngs, and to render us averfe, either to the reading of 

 fach tragedies, or to the beholding of them upon the 

 ftage." 



Under the general head of the unity of aftionj to which 

 P after 



