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meaning; who are cheated by the crafty, insulted by the insolent, and triumphed over by Of the Ridi+

all.

17. Comedy therefore, considered as holding out examples for real life, is necessarily still more immoral in its tendency than tragedy; since the characters and incidents, which it exhibits, are those which occur in the ordinary ranks of civil society, and which it is therefore in every one's power to imitate. The crimes of King Richard, or Macbeth, are within the reach of few; but the vices of Charles Surface, and the indiscretions of Tom Jones, are within the reach of every gentleman: nevertheless, I do not believe that such vices, and such indiscretions, would have been less frequent, if those popular instances of them had never been exhibited to the public; for the high spirits of the gay and voluptuous think as little of the examples held out in plays and romances, when plunging into riot and intemperance, as the aspiring minds of the ambitious do, when planning designs of treason and usurpation. A coxcomical highwayman may, indeed, affect to imitate the character of Macheath; but this imitation commences after he becomes a highwayman, which he would equally have been, had the Beggar's Opera never existed. Men are driven to such courses by the urgent pressure of want, brought on, perhaps, by the

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culous.

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culous.

thoughtless indulgences of vice and extravagance but no person, in his senses, was ever Of the Ridi- led into enterprises of such dangerous importance by the romantic desire of imitating the fictions of a drama. If the conduct of any persons is influenced by the examples exhibited in such fictions, it is that of young ladies in the affairs of love and marriage: but I believe that such influence is much more rare, than severe moralists are inclined to suppose; since there were plenty of elopements, and stolen matches, before comedies, or plays of any kind, were known-" viderunt primos argentea secula machos."-If, however, there are any romantic minds, which feel this influence, they may draw an awful lesson concerning its consequences from the same source; namely, that the same kind of marriage, which usually ends a comedy, as usually begins a tragedy.

CHAPTER III.

OF NOVELTY.

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III.

1. IT has been observed, in a preceding part of this inquiry, that every natural sentiment or sensation, when long continued without varia- Of Novelty. tion or interruption, becomes an habitual mode of existence instead of a transitory affection; and, therefore, ceases to produce any marked degree either of pleasure or pain. Even if repeated very frequently, and always in the same mode and degree, it will become so far habitual as to be very insipid; though not quite neutral or imperceptible: for if the revival of it can so far awaken attention as to be perceived and noted, its impression must be either pleasing or the contrary; though, perhaps, in so slight a degree, as scarcely to relieve the mind from that painful listlessness, which arises from the sense of mere unemployed and unvaried existence.

2. Change and variety are, therefore, necessary to the enjoyment of all pleasure; whether sensual or intellectual: and so powerful is this principle, that all change, not so violent as to produce a degree of irritation in the organs

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Of Novelty.

absolutely painful, is pleasing; and preferable to any uniform and unvaried gratification.

3. It might naturally be supposed, when standards of excellence were universally acknowledged and admired in every art; in poetry and elocution; in painting and sculpture; in personal dress, decoration, and demeanor; it might naturally be supposed, I say, that the style and manner at least of those standards would be universally followed; and that the wit and ingenuity of man would only be employed in adding the utmost refinements of execution to that, which admitted of no improvements from invention. But this is by no means the case:-on the contrary, ita comparatum est humanum ingenium, ut optimarum rerum satietate defatigetur; unde fit, artes, necessitatis vi crescere, aut decrescere semper; et ad fastigium evectas, ibi non posse consistere. Perfection in taste and style has no sooner been reached, than it has been abandoned, even by those, who not only professed the warmest, but felt the sincerest admiration for the models, which they forsook. The style of Virgil and Horace in poetry, and that of Cæsar and Cicero in prose, continued to be admired and applauded through all the succeeding ages of Roman eloquence, as the true standards of taste and eloquence in writing. Yet no one ever attempted to imitate them;

though there is no reason to suspect that their praises were not perfectly sincere: but all writers seek for applause; and applause is only to be gained by novelty. The style of Cicero and Virgil was new in the Latin language, when they wrote; but, in the age of Seneca and Lucan, it was no longer so; and though it still imposed by the stamp of authority, it could not even please without it; so that living writers, whose names depended on their works, and not their works upon their names, were obliged to seek for other means of exciting public attention, and acquiring public appro→ bation. In the succeeding age the refinements of these writers became old and insipid; and those of Statius and Tacitus were successfully employed to gratify the restless pruriency of innovation. In all other ages and countries, where letters have been successfully cultivated, the progression has been nearly the same; and in none more distinctly than in our own: from Swift and Addison to Johnson, Burke and Gibbon, is a transition exactly similar to that from Cæsar and Cicero to Seneca and Tacitus.

4. In imitative art, the progress of corruption has been nearly the same. The taste for pure design in Italy arose and perished with Raphael; whose immediate scholars and successors deviated into extravagance and distortion, that they might appear original, and gain

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Of Novelty.

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