ACCOUNT of the GERMAN THEATRE, 173 



I think we may venture to pronounce thefe dramas favourable 

 both to moral principle and to the practice of virtue. To the 

 former, they are allowed, even by their adverfaries, to be 

 friendly ; to the latter, it may perhaps be contended that they 

 do not always contribute, or at beft that they only produce 

 that momentary impreffion, which paffes over the mind like a 

 golden dream, amufing to the fancy, but without any effect on 

 our actual conduct or difpofitions. The French dramas of this 

 fpecies, and fome of the German ones in this collection, 

 which feem to have been formed on thefe models, have a good 

 deal of that pompous wordy declamation of virtue and fenfibi- 

 lity, which, like every fpecies of bombaftic writing, is extreme- 

 ly popular at its firft introduction, and generally maintains a 

 number of partizans, even when affailed by the weapons of 

 criticifm or good fenfe. Such a common-place fort of weak- 

 nefs hurts equally the good effects of the drama, as a leffon of 

 morals, and the entertainment to be derived from it as a work 

 of tafie. To the enemies of virtue, the ridicule is open ; to 

 her friends, the exhibition is painful ; it is like the dotage of 

 a perfon we love, which, though we cannot laugh at, we are 

 conftrained to blufh for. Befides, in moral effect, it lofes the 

 advantage which, as I obferved above, this fpecies of drama 

 poffefTes, of approaching nearer than any other to ourfelves. 

 When we fee fo little truth or life in the picture, when the fen- 

 ti-ments foar fo airy a height, we feel them as thofe of another 

 world, which, if we mould even admire, we will never concern 

 ourfelves to imitate. 



It mufl, however, be confeffed, that though fuch weak 

 paffages will naturally produce thofe effects among people of 

 better informed judgments and more ripened tafte ; yet, by 

 the lefs refined part of an ordinary audience, they are often 

 received with that genuine feeling and applaufe, which, a6 

 they are produced by virtue, are friendly to her interefts. At 

 the reprefentation of fome of thofe fcenes, where very lauda- 

 ble, 



