OCR Text |
Show ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. .CANTO III. 104 Love sighs in sympathy, with pain combined, And new-born Pity char~m t~e kindred mind; The enamour' d Sorrow every cheek bedews, And TASTE impassion'd woos the tragic Muse. ,, The rush-thatch'd cottage on the purple moor, Where ruddy children frolic round the door' The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak, The shaggy locks that fringe the .colt unbroke, 250 The trao·ic Muse, 1. 246. Why we are delighted with the scenical representa~ions of Trag~dy, which draw tears from o.ur eyes, h~s been variously explained by different writers. The same dist~ ~ssfu_l Clrcm:lstance attendino· an twly or wicked person affects us With gnef or dts-o b • h gust; but"when distress occars to a beauteous or ~ntuou~ person, t. e pleasurable idea of beauty or of virtue becomes mixed WI.th ~he pamful one of sorrow and the passion of Pity is produced, wh1ch IS a combination of love or esteem with sorrow; and becomes highly iuteresting to us by fixing our attention more intensely on the beauteous or virtuous person. Othe1· distressful scenes have been supposed to give pleasure to the spectator from exciting a comparative idea of his own happine~s, as when a shipwreck is viewed by a person safe on shore, as mentiOned by Lucretius, L. 3. But these dreadful situation~ belong rather to - the terrible, or the horrid, than to the tragic; and may be objects of curiosity from their novelty, but not of Taste, and must suggest much more pain than pleasure. CANTO ·nr. PROGRESS OF THE MIND. The bearded goat with nimble eyes, that glare Through the long tissue of his hoary hair;- As with quick foot he climbs some ruin'd wall And crops the ivy, which prevents its fall;With rural_ charms ~he tranquil mind delight, And form a picture to the admiring sight. ' While TASTE with pleasure bends his eye surprised In modern days at Nature unchastised .. " The G.ENrus-FoRM, on sii~er slippers born, lOS With fairer dew-drops gems the rising morn; 260 Sheds o'er meridian skies a softer Jight, And decks with brighter pearls the brow of night; .LVat~re unchastised, I. ~58. In cities -0r the!r vicinity, and even in the cultivated parts of the country we rarely see undis()"uised nature· 1 b ' t 1e fields are ploughed, the meadows mown, the shrubs planted in rows for hedges, the trees deprived of their lower b-ranches and the an_imals, as horses, dog·s, and sheep, are mutilated in respe~t t0 their ta1ls ~r ears; su.ch is the useful or ill-employed activity of mankind! all. which alteratiOns add to the formality of the soil, plants, trees, or ammals; whence when natural objects are occasionally presented to us, as an _uncultivated forest and its wild inhabitants, we are not only · amused wtth greater variety of form, but are at the same time enchanted by the ch~rm of novelty, which is a less degree of Surprise, 2.lready spoken of m note on 1. 145 of this Canto. p |