imagination can suggest: and if the crime cannot bear disguise, the next attempt is to thrust it out of mind altogether, and to rush on to action without thought. This last was the husband's method:

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they must be scann'd.
Act III. Sc. 4.

The lady follows neither of these courses, but in a deliberate manner endeavors to fortify her heart in the commission of an execrable crime, without even attempting to color it. This, I think, is not natural; I hope there is no such wretch to be found as is here represented. In the Pompey of Corneille, Photine counsels a wicked action in the plainest terms without disguise:

Seigneur, n'attirez point le tonnerre en ces lieux,
Rangez vous du parti des destins et des dieux,
Et sans les accuser d'injustice, ou d'outrage;
Puis qu'ils font les heureux, adorez leur ouvrage;

Quels que soient leurs décrets, déclarez-vous pour eux,
Et pour leur obéir, perdez le malheureux.

Pressé de toutes parts des colères célestes,

Il en vient dessus vous faire fondre les restes;

Et sa tête qu'à peine il a pû dérober,

Tout prête adéchoir, cherche avec qui tomber.
Sa retraite chez vous en effet n'est qu'un crime;
Elle marque sa haine, et non pas son estime;
Il ne vient que vous perdre en venant prendre port,
Et vous pouvez douter s'il est digne de mort!

Il devoit mieux remplir nos vœux et notre attente,
Faire voir sur ses nefs la victoire flottante;

Il n'eût ici trouvé que joye et que festins;

Mais puisqu'il est vaincu, qu'il s'en prenne aux destins.
J'en veux à sa disgrace et non à sa personne,

J'exécute à regret ce que le ciel ordonne,
Et du même poignard, pour César destiné,
Je perce en soupirant son cœur infortuné,
Vous ne pouvez enfin qu'aux dépens de sa tête
Mettre à l'abri la vôtre, et parer la tempête.
Laissez nommer sa mort un injuste attentat,
La justice n'est pas une vertu d'état.

Le choix des actions, ou mauvaises, ou bonnes,
Ne fait qu'anéantir la force des couronnes;
Le droit des rois consiste à ne rien épargner;

La timide équité détruit l'art de régner;

Quand on craint d'être injuste on a toujours à craindre;
Et qui veut tout pouvoir doit oser tout enfreindre

Fuir comme un deshonneur la vertu qui le perd,

Et voler sans scrupule au crime qui lui sert.

In the tragedy of Esther,† Haman acknowledges, without disguise, his cruelty, insolence, and pride. And there is another example of the same kind in the Agamemnon of Seneca. In the tragedy of Athalie, Mathan, in cool blood, relates to his friend many black crimes of which he had been guilty, to satisfy his ambition.

In Congreve's Double-dealer, Maskwell, instead of disguising or coloring his crimes, values himself upon them in a soliloquy:

Cynthia, let thy beauty gild my crimes; and whatsoever I commit of treachery

Act I. Sc. I.

* Beginning of Act II.

† Act II. Sc. I.

§ Act III. Sc. 3. at the close.

or deceit, shall be imputed to me as a merit.Treachery! what treachery? Love cancels all the bonds of friendship, and sets men right upon their first foundations. Act II. Sc. 8.

In French plays, love, instead of being hid or disguised, is treated as a serious concern, and of greater importance than fortune, family, or dignity. I suspect the reason to be, that, in the capital of France, love, by the easiness of intercourse, has dwindled down from a real passion to be a connection that is regulated entirely by the mode or fashion. This may in some measure excuse their writers, but will never make their plays be relished among foreigners:

Maxime. Quoi, trahir mon ami?
Euphorbe.

-L'amour rend tout permis,
Un véritable amant ne connoît point d'amis.

Cinna, Act III. Sc. 1.

César. Reine, tout est paisible, et la ville calmée,
Qu'un trouble assez léger avoit trop alarmée,
N'a plus à redouter le divorce intestin
Du soldat insolent, et du peuple mutin.

Mais, ô Dieux! ce moment que je vous ai quittée,
D'un trouble bien plus grand a mon ame agitée,
Et ces soins importuns qui m'arrachoient de vous
Contre ma grandeur même allumoient mon courroux.
Je lui voulois du mal de m'être si contraire,
De rendre ma présence ailleurs si nécessaire,
Mais je lui pardonnois au simple souvenir
Du bonheur qu'à ma flamme elle a fait obtenir.
C'est elle dont je tiens cette haute espérance,
Qui flatte mes désirs d'une illustre apparence,
Et fait croire à César qu'il peut former des vœux,
Qu'il n'est pas tout-à fait indigne de vos feux,
Et qu'il peut en prétendre une juste conquête,
N'ayant plus que les Dieux au dessus de sa tête.
Oui, Reine, si quelqu'un dans ce vaste univers
Pouvoit porter plus haut la gloire de vos fers;
S'il étoit quelque trône où vous puissiez paroître
Plus dignement assise en captivant son maître,
J'irois, j'irois à lui, moins pour le lui ravir,
Que pour lui disputer le droit de vous servir;
Et je n'aspirerois au bonheur de vous plaire,
Qu'après avoir mis bas un si grand adversaire.
C'étoit pour acquérir un droit si précieux,
Que combattoit partout mon bras ambitieux,
Et dans Pharsale même il a tiré l'épée
Plus pour le conserver, que pour vaincre Pompée.
Je l'ai vaincu, princesse, et le Dieu des combats
M'y favorisoit moins que vos divins appas.

Ils conduisoient ma main, ils enfloient mon courage,
Cette pleine victoire est leur dernier ouvrage,
C'est l'effet des ardeurs qu'ils daignoient m'inspirer
Et vos beaux yeux enfin m'ayant fait soupirer,
Pour faire que votre ame avec gloire y réponde,
M'ont rendu le premier, et de Rome, et du monde
C'est ce glorieux titre, à présent effectif;
Que je viens ennoblir par celui de captif;
Heureux, si mon esprit gagne tant sur le vôtre,
Qu'il en estime l'un, et me permette l'autre.

Pompée, Act IV. Sc. 3.

A certain author says humorously, "Les mots mêmes d'amour et d'ainant sont bannis de l'intime société des deux sexes, et relégués avec ceux de chaine et de flamme dans les Romans qu'on ne lit plus." And where nature is once banished, a fair field is open to every fantastic imitation, even the most extravagant.

The last class comprehends sentiments that are unnatural, as being suited to no character nor passion. These may be subdivided into three branches: first, sentiments unsuitable to the constitution of man, and to the laws of his nature; second, inconsistent sentiments; third, sentiments that are pure rant and extravagance.

When the fable is of human affairs, every event, every incident, and every circumstance, ought to be natural, otherwise the imitation is imperfect. But an imperfect imitation is a venial fault, compared with that of running contrary to nature. In the Hippolytus of Euripides, Hippolytus, wishing for another self in his own situation, How much (says he) should I be touched with his misfortune! as if it were natural to grieve more for the misfortunes of another

than for one's own.

Osmyn. Yet I behold her-yet-and now no more.
Turn your lights inward, eyes, and view my thought.
So shall you still behold her-'twill not be.

O impotence of sight! mechanic sense
Which to exterior objects ow'st thy faculty,
Not seeing of election, but necessity.

Thus do our eyes, as do all common mirrors,
Successively reflect succeeding images.
Nor what they would, but must; a star or toad;
Just as the hand of chance administers!

Mourning Bride, Act II. Sc. 8.

No man, in his senses, ever thought of applying his eyes to discover what passes in his mind; far less of blaming his eyes for not seeing a thought or idea. In Moliere's L'Avare,t Harpagon being robbed of his money, seizes himself by the arm, mistaking it for that of the robber. And again he expresses himself as follows:

Je veux aller quérir la justice, et faire donner la question à toute ma maison; à servantes, à valets, à fils, à fille, et à moi aussi.

This is so absurd as scarcely to provoke a smile, if it be not at the author.

Of this second branch the following are examples.

Of the third branch, take the following samples
Lucan, talking of Pompey's sepulchre,

-Romanum nomen, et omne
Imperium Magno est tumuli modus. Obrue saxa
Crimine plena deum. Si tota est Herculis Oete,
Et juga tota vacant Bromio Nyseia; quare
Unus in Egypto Magno lapis? Omnia Lagi
Rura tenere potest, si nullo cespite nomen
Hæserit. Erremus populi, cinerumque tuorum,
Magne, metu nullas Nili calcemus arenas.

Thus in Rowe's translation:

L. 8. 1. 798.

Where there are seas, or air, or earth, or skies,
Where-e'er Rome's empire stretches, Pompey lies.
Far be the vile memorial then convey'd!
Nor let this stone the partial gods upbraid
Shall Hercules all Oeta's heights demand,
And Nysa's hill for Bacchus only stand,
While one poor pebble is the warrior's doom
That fought the cause of liberty and Rome?
If fate decrees he must in Egypt lie,
Let the whole fertile realm his grave supply,
Yield the wide country to his awful shade
Nor let us dare on any part to tread,
Fearful we violate the mighty dead.

The following passages are pure rant. Coriolanus, speaking to his mother,

Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 4.
-This day

I gave my faith to him, he his to me.

Almanzor. Good heaven, thy book of fate before me lay
But to tear out the journal of this day.

Or if the order of the world below,

Will not the gap of one whole day allow,

Give me that minute when she made that vow,

That minute e'en the happy from their bliss might give,
And those who live in grief a shorter time would live,

So small a link if broke, th' eternal chain,

Would like divided waters join again.

Almanzor.

Conquest of Grenada, Act IIL
I'll hold it fast

As life: when life's gone, I'll hold this last,
And if thou tak'st after I am slain,

I'll send my ghost to fetch it back again.

Conquest of Grenada, Par ). L.

Lyndiraxa. A crown is come, and will not fate,

And yet I feel something like death is near.

My guards, my guards

Let not that ugly skeleton appear.

Sure destiny mistakes; this death's not mine;
She doats, and means to cut another line.
Tell her I am a queen-but 'tis too late;
Dying, I charge rebellion on my fate;
Bow down, ye slaves-

Bow quickly down and your submission show;
I'm pleas'd to taste an empire ere I go.

[Dres.

Conquest of Grenada, Part 2. Act V

Ventidius. But you, erg love misled your wand'ring eyes

Were, sure, the chief and best of human race,

Fram'd in the very pride and boast of nature,

So perfect, that the gods who formed you wonder'd

At their own skill, and cry'd, a lucky hit

Has mended our design.

Dryden, All for Love, Act I.

Not to talk of the impiety of this sentiment, it is ludicrous instead of being lofty.

The famous epitaph on Raphael is no less absurd than foregoing passages:

Raphel, timuit, quo sospite, vinci
Rerum magna parens, et moriente mori.

Imitated by Pope in his Epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller:

Living, great nature fear'd he might outvie

Her works; and dying, fears herself might die.

any of the

Such is the force of imitation; for Pope, of himself, would never have been guilty of a thought so extravagant.

So much upon sentiments; the language proper for expressing them, comes next in order.

'CHAPTER XVII.

LANGUAGE OF PASSION.

Man has a propensity to communicate his passions and emotions-Venting a passion gives relief-Immoderate grief is silent, because it fills the mind-Immoderate love and revenge silent-Surprise and terror silent-They express in words, only the capital circumstances-Language should be adopted to the sentiment and passion-Elevated sentiments require elevated language-Tender sentiments, soft and flowing language-Figures give an agreeable character to sentiment-Gross errors, of passions expressed in flowing in an unequal course -The language of violent passion, interrupted and broken, soliloquíes particularly-Authors apt to use language above their tone of mind-To use language too figurative for the dignity and importance of the subject, an errorLanguage too light and airy for a serious passion-A thought that turns upon one expression instead of the subject-Expressions which have no distinct meaning.

AMONG the particulars that compose the social part of our nature, a propensity to communicate our opinions, our emotions, and every thing that affects us, is remarkable. Bad fortune and injustice affect us greatly; and of these we are so prone to complain, that if we have no friend nor acquaintance to take part in our sufferings, we sometimes utter our complaints aloud, even where there are none to listen.