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Show 218 A DIALOGUE. prove that there is not au advocate for shvcry on tllc face of the earth. Afrs. G. Only such advocates as there is for robbery and war. Those who find it for their interest to proc· ticc these crimes condemn them in the abstract, or at most only apologize for them, as necessary and expedient, under peculiar circumstances. Frank. (Laughing.) Why, mother, I shall certainly subscribe fo~ your "North Amcricn.n He view/' pru·· ticularly if you fill the literary department as ably as you bavc the moral and political, to test which, let me propound a question? If the rcwawl of the good be the charm of fiction, how do you account for the pleasure derived from tragedy, where the good arc overwhelmed with the evil? Mrs. G. (Smiling.) With great diffidence we reply to the query of our learned friend. 'rhe force of tragedy consists in its depicting evil so ruinous as to involve even the innocent in the catastrophe; tho pleasure is derived, we think, from the failure of the mischievous design, and the merited retribution which falls upon the head of the plotters. In Romeo, "a scourge is laid upon the hate of the Montagucs and Capulets, by which all arc ·punished;" llamlet's A DIALOGUE. 210 wicked uncle is ju~tly served, drinking the poison tcmpcrccl by himself; ancl logo pulls down ruin upon Limsdf no Jess than upon Cassie. Frank. (Bowing playfully.) Yotu review meets my entire approbation, inasmuch as it confirms my doctrine, that theatres always give their verdict iu favor of yirluc. 11£·. D. "Casting out clcvils th1·ough Beelzebub." J.E·s. G. 'l'hc artistic cifect of every work of the imagination is '~rought upon what critics call th~ ''sympathetic emotion of virtue," ::mel the decisions 4 this faculty, so far as we understand them, always correspond with what Christians believe concerning the "final restitution of all things." J?i'anl.:.. rl'bo theatre, tlJCn, ought to promote good morals-why docs it not? Mr. D. "Ami many worthy men ~Iain laiucd it mi;5ht be turncJ to good account, Anti so perhaps it might, but llC\"CI' wa~." J[ts. G. Tl1c "sympathetic emotion of virtue," not having an object, never~ rises to passion, and therefore never produces action. Philosophers tell us that a thought o! virtue passing often through the |