seems, however, in this instance to have forsaken him: for, in reasoning from experience or analogy, possibility is only a degree of credibility; and the greater degree must necessarily include the less; wherefore that, which is thought to be credible, must previously be thought to be possible. A negative, too, in its nature, excludes all degrees whatever; for, where there is none, there cannot be either more or less: and though a negative on one side may, in some cases, imply an affirmative, either contingent or absolute, on the other, it is surely most absurdly paradoxical to assert that an absolute negative, on one side, may include a contingent affirmative, on the same side. Yet this is the conclusion, to which we must come, before we can admit of a credible impossible: but the nature and extent of human knowledge had not been ascertained in the time of the Stagirite; it being to the profound investigations of our own countrymen, particularly Locke, that we owe these most important discoveries in philosophy. I am of course supposing equal, or at least nearly equal degrees of knowledge in the persons to whom the events or circumstances are related or exhibited; there being no doubt that very ignorant persons may think even probable, what the learned know to be impossible. 10. I do not mean, however, to infer that, in order to relish the Homeric fictions, it is CHAP. III. Of Judg ment. CHAP. Of Judg ment. necessary to believe that Ulysses actually did swim for so long a time; or that Achilles drove a whole army before him, like so many grasshoppers. On the contrary, we only read these things as fictions; and never suppose them true, even when most interested in them: for if the events are not demonstrably false; but are such as the men, there described, could have produced, had such men ever existed we never stop to inquire whether they ever existed or not; or whether they are such as now exist; but consider the descriptions as embellished pictures of human nature, with the expression of which we sympathize, according to the degrees of truth and energy, with which the passions and affections are displayed, ; 11. This is abundantly proved by the effects of dramatic exhibitions: for, notwithstanding all that critics have said of the probability of the plot, and the coincidence of the representation with the reality, arising out of a strict observance of the unities of time, place, and action, there never was, as Dr. Johnson has observed*, the smallest degree of this kind of probability, or coincidence, preserved in any dramatic exhibition whatsoever; no kind of deception having ever been intended; nor any being, in Preface to Shakspeare. any case, required to excite sympathy*. At the very moment, that our tears are flowing for the sorrows of Belvidera or Callista, we know that we are in a theatre in London, and not either at Venice or Genoa; and that the person, with whose expressions of grief and tenderness we sympathize, is not the wife of Jaffier or Altamont, but of Mr. Siddons. If there were any deception, so that we did, for a moment, suppose the incidents, which excite those expressions, to be real, our feelings would be of a very different, and inuch less pleasant kind. 12. This is not the case with a fanatical orator or field preacher: his enthusiasm must be thought by his audience to be real and sincere, or it will have no effect: if once they suspect him to be an actor, there is an end of his influence; and, if he be listened to any longer, it is through mere curiosity; when his extravagant rants, being heard without sympathy, are uttered without influence. The matter and expression of his discourse are then canvassed with the same liberty and impartiality, as those of a drama on the stage; The Abbé du Bos had before observed that dramatic exhibitions were never meant to be deceptions in any degree; (Reflexions critiques, part i. f. xliii.) but, nevertheless, he continues to argue, in other parts of his work, as if they were. СНАР, III. Of Judg ment. CHAP. III. Of Judg ment. and unless there be real sense and argument in the one, and energy and perspicuity in the other, he will soon find himself treated with scorn and derision. As long, however, as he can appear to feel the passions, which he strives to impress, he will seldom fail of impressing them upon the ignorant and credulous; and then it signifies little what he says: merely ringing the changes upon the words sin and repentance, damnation, and redemption, &c. &c. is all that is required to excite the admiration, and win the confidence of the affrighted and astonished rabble*. 13. It was by these means that the club orators in France obtained their influence: the tumultuous assemblies of the populace, which they addressed, were as little capable of understanding, as of uttering reason; but the words liberté, egalité, trahison, vengeance, &c. repeated with a loud voice, strong emphasis, and vehement gesticulation, filled their minds with mysterious hopes, fears, and suspicions; and led them to the commission of all those dreadful excesses, which have disgraced the revolution; and rendered all the wild efforts for universal liberty subservient to the cause of universal despotism. "Collidere manus, terræ pedem incutere, femur, pectus, frontem cædere, mire ad pullatum circulum facit." QUINTIL. Inst. 1. ii. c. xii. 14. Shakspeare has represented the Roman rabble to be just as fickle, as rash, and as sanguinary, as the Parisian: but had he made Mark Antony speak no better than Robespierre, Danton, or Hebert, the London audience would have hooted him from the stage, though the Roman might have applauded him in the rostrum*: for the spectators in the theatre sympathize with none of the passions, which agitated those in the forum. They know that the person representing Mark Antony is an actor dressed out for the purpose; and that the events exhibited are entirely fictitious, merely meant to give an appropriate meaning to the speeches uttered; with the energies of sentiment and expression of which they only sympathize †. 15. It is from knowing and feeling that the persons, whom we see on the stage, are mere From the mountebank tricks which Mark Antony played over the body of Cæsar with so much effect, it is probable that his real style of eloquence was not much better. See Appian, de Bello civili.-Augustus observed that he wrote to be admired rather than understood"quasi ea scribentem quæ mirentur potius homines quam intelligant." Sueton. in Aug. f. lxxxvi. He has left a numerous tribe of disciples. † Demosthenes being asked what was the first qualification of an orator? answered, Action, What the second? Action. What the third? Action. He had learned, from long and humiliating experience, that the strong sound sense, which distinguishes his ora СНАР. Of Judg ment. |