have been put to a very good account.

What

is worst, he is now fenfible of this himself.-I knew not whether to fmile or to cry, when, the other day, I heard him fay, he was now growing old but one comfort he had, that die when he would, he would not leave one fad heart behind him on that account.-"I fhall "flip out of the world," faid he, "without "being miffed."

S

N° 27. SATURDAY, August 6, 1785.

Maxima pars vatum, pater, et juvenes patre digni, Decipimur fpecie recti.

IN

HOR.

N forming the minds and regulating the conduct of men, nothing seems to be of greater importance than a proper fyftem of what may be termed domeftic morality; the science of those relative duties, which do not apply only to particular fituations, to large fortunes, to exalted rank, to extenfive influence, but which conftitute that part and character in life which almost every one is called to perform.

Of all above the lower ranks, of all who claim the station or the feelings of a gentleman, the knowledge of this fcience is either inculcated by family precept and example, or is endeavoured to be instilled by reading. In the latter cafe, the works made ufe of for that purpose are either purely didactic, which speak the language of authoritative wisdom; hiftorical, which hold forth the example of paft events to the judgment; or they are of that fort which are calculated to mould the heart and the manners through the medium of the imagination. Of this laft clafs,

the

the principal are ftories or novels, and theatrical compofitions. On the fubjects of Novels, I have in a former paper delivered a few general remarks, calculated to afcertain their moral tendency. In this I propofe extending my confideration to Dramatic writing; and, as it is nearest to the Novel, at leaft to that fpecies which I principally confidered in the paper alluded to, I shall begin with a similar examination of Tragedy.

The engines which Tragedy professes to use for moral instruction, are the passions. The father of dramatic criticism has told us, that Tragedy "purges the paffions by exciting them :" a propofition, which, from its fhort apothegmatical form, is fubject to confiderable obfcurity. A modern writer, in his defence of Tragedy as a moral exhibition, explains its meaning, by the analogy of the Spartan cuftom of making their flaves drunk, and fhewing them in that beaftly ftate to their children, in order to inspire a detestation for the vice of intemperance. But if this is to furnish us with an illuftration of Ariftotle's affertion, I am afraid it will not aid the cause of Tragedy as a school of morals. It was from the previous contempt of the rank and manners of the drunkard, that the Spartan boy was to form his eftimate of drunkenness. The vice of a flave could hardly fail to disgust him.

But

But had they fhewn him the vice itself, how loathfome and degrading foever in its own nature, in a person of fuperior refpect and eftimation, what would have been the confequence? The fairest answer may be drawn from the experience of those countries where freemen get drunk, where fenators and leaders of armies are fometimes intoxicated. The youths who behold thefe examples the ofteneft are not the leaft liable to follow them. I am afraid it is even fo with Tragedy. Scenes prefenting paffions and vices, round which the Poet throws the veil of magnanimity, which he decorates with the pomp of verfe, with the fplendor of eloquence, familiarife the mind to their appearance, and take from it that natural difguft which the crimes, prefented in their native form, would certainly excite. Cruelty, revenge, and murder, are often the attributes of the hero; for he must always be the hero on whom the principal stress of the action lies. What punishment awaits, or what misfortunes attend his crimes, is little to the purpose; if the villain is the prominent figure of the piece, he will be the hero of the Tragedy, as the robber, though he is about to be hanged, is the hero of the trial or the execution. But even of the nobler characters does not the morality of fentiment often yield to the immorality of fituation? Treachery is often the fruit of

wisdom and of resolution; murder, and exertion of valour; and fuicide, the refource of virtuous affliction. It will be remembered, that it is not so much from what the hero fays, as from what he does, that an impreffion is drawn. The repentant lines which Cato speaks when he is dying, are never regarded. It is the dagger only we remember, that dagger by which he escaped from chains, and purchased immortality.

But the leading paffion of modern Tragedy is one to which Aristotle could scarce have meant his rule to apply; because in ancient Tragedy it was almost unknown. The paffion I allude to is Love. The manners and fociety of modern times neceffarily led to this change in the Drama. For the obfervation which fome authors have made is perfectly juft, that the sentiments of the Stage will always be fuch as are flattering, rather than corrective of national manners and national failings; fuperftition in Greece, gallantry in France, freedom and courage in England. In every popular exhibition this must be the cafe. Even the facrednefs and authority of the Pulpit is not exempted from its influence. In polite chapels, preachers exhort to morality : in crowded churches of less fashionable people, they enlarge on doctrinal subjects, on faith and fanctification. But the very existence of the Stage depends on that public opinion which it is not to

reform