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Show [ 90 ] fubjeCl:, as poetry itfelf ought to refemble nature. It fhould have { 0 much fublimity, beauty, or novelty, as to intereft the reader ; abd {houlJ be expreffeu in pid:urefque language, fo as to bring the fcenery before his eye; and ihould lafily bear fo much veri-fimili~ tude as not to awaken him by the violence of improbability or in-congruity . B. May not the reverie of the reader be diffipated or difiurbed by difagrceable images being prefented to his imagination, as well as by improbable or incongruous ones? P. Certainly; he will endeavour to roufc himfelf from a di fagreeable reverie, as from the night-mare. And from this may be difcovered the line of boundary between the Tragic and the Horrid;. which line, however, will veer a little this way or that, according to the prevailing manners of the age or country, and the peculiar affo .. ciation of ideas, or idiofyncracy of mind, of individuals. For infiance, if an artifi {hould reprefent the death of an officer in battle, by {hewing a little blood on the bofom of his ihirt, as if a bullet had there penetrated, the dying figure would affetl the beholder with pity; an.d if fortitude was at the fame time expre:ffed in his countenance, admiration would be added to our pity. On the contrary, if the artifi {hould chufe to reprefent his thigh as ihot away by a cannon ball, and 1hould exhibit the bleeding flelh and fhattered bone of the fiump, the picture would introduce into our minds ideas from a butcher's lhop, or a furgeon's operation room, and we fhould turn from it with difguft. · So if characters were brought llpon the fiage with their limbs disjointed by torturing infiruments, and the floor covered with clotted blood and fcattered brains, our theatric reverie would be defiroyed by difguft, and we ihould leave the play -houfc with detefiation. The Painters have been more guilty in this refpeCl: than the Poets; the cruelty of Apollo in flaying Marcias alive is a favourite fubjetl: with the ant ien~ artifts: and the tortures of expiring mar- ( 9I J tyrs. h~vc difgraced t~c modern ones. It requires little genius to ex~tbtt the mufcles m convuHivc action either by the pencil or the ch1ffel, becaufe the interfiiccs are deep, and the lines frrongly de .. fined: but thofe tender gradations of mufcular action, wbich confiitute the graceful attitudes of the body, are difficult to conceive or to execute, except by a mailer of nice difcernn1ent and cultivated tafl:e. B. By what definition would you difringuifh the Horrid from the Tragic? ~. . I fu.ppofe the latter confifi of Difirefs attended with Pity, whtch IS fa1d to be allied to Love, the moft agreeable of all our paf~ ons ~ and the former in difrrefs, accompanied with Difguft, which IS allted to Hate, and is one of our mofi difagreeable fenfations. Hence, when horrid fcenes of cruelty are reprefented in piCtures, we wifh to dilbelieve their exifl:ence, and voluntarily exert ourfelves to efcape from the deception : whereas the bitter cup of true Tragedy is mingled with fome fweet confolatory drops, which endear our tears, and we continue to contemplate the interefiing delufion with a delight, which is not cafy to explain. B. Has not this been explained by Lucretius, where he defcribes a {hip wreck; and fays, the SpeCtators receive pleafure from feeling themfelves fafe on land? and by Akenfide, in his beautiful poem on the Plcafurcs of Imagination, who afcPibes it to our finding ob-,. j etts for the due exertion of our paffions ? P . We mufl: not confound our fenfations at the contemplation of real mifcry with thofe which we experience at the fcenical reprefentations of tragedy. The fped:ators of a ihipwreck may be attraCted by the dignity and nGvelty of the object; and from thcfc may be faid to receive pleafure ; but not from the difirefs of the fufferers . An ingenious writer who has criticifcd this dialogue in Nz |