PART III.

OF THE PASSIONS.

CHAP.

I.

Of the Su

CHAPTER I.

OF THE SUBLIME AND PATHETIC.

1. THE passions, considered either physically as belonging to the constitution of the blime and individual, or morally, as operating upon that Pathetic. of society, do not come within the scope of my present inquiry; it being only by sympathy, that they are connected with subjects of taste; or that they produce, in the mind, any of those tender feelings, which are called pathetic, or those exalted or enthusiastic sentiments, which are called sublime. When we see others suffer, we naturally suffer with them, though not in the same degrees; nor even in the same modes for those sufferings, which we should most dread personally to endure, we delight to see exhibited or represented, though not actually endured by others; and, nevertheless, this delight certainly arises from sympathy.

2. Of this kind is that, which we receive from tragedy, and from all pathetic or impassioned narratives; the intrinsic truth or false-

hood of which, as before observed, does not matter, provided they have the semblance of truth; that is, provided the characters be consistent with themselves; the incidents with the characters, and with each other; and the expressions of sentiment and passion such, as such incidents would naturally excite in such characters.

3. The great author, indeed, already so often cited, asserts that the nearer tragedy approaches the reality, and the further it removes us from all idea of fiction, the more perfect is its power; and he has illustrated this position by an example stated with his usual brilliancy and eloquence. "Choose," says he, "a day to represent the most sublime and affecting tragedy we have; appoint the most favourite actors; spare no cost upon the scenes and decorations; unite the greatest efforts of poetry, painting, and music; and when you have collected your audience, just at the moment, when their minds are erect with expectation, let it be reported that a state criminal of high rank is on the point of being executed in an adjoining square, in a moment the emptiness of the theatre would demonstrate the comparative weakness of the imitative arts, and proclaim the triumph of real sympathy *.

* Sublime and Beautiful, P. I. £. xv,

СИАР.

I.

Of the Sublime and Pathetic.

CHAP.
I.

Of the S

Pathetic.

4. This is unquestionably true: but is not the triumph as much of curiosity, as of symblime and pathy; and would not the sudden appearance of any very renowned foreign chief or potentate, in the adjoining square, equally empty the benches of the theatre? I apprehend that it would; and cannot but suspect that even a bottle conjuror, a flying witch, or any other miraculous phænomenon of the kind, being announced with sufficient confidence to obtain belief, would have the same effect: wherefore, to make the comparison between the exhibitions on the scaffold, and those on the stage, fairly, we must suppose them both to be equally frequent and common; in which case, I cannot but hope, for the honour of human nature, that scenes of mimic distress would be more attractive, than those of real suffering. Happily, in this country, the execution of a state criminal of high rank, or indeed of any rank, has of late years been a rare event; and one, which very few persons now living have ever witnessed. At the time too, when the above statement was made, such a spectacle would have been almost equally novel in any part of Europe: but we have since had abundant and lamentable proof, in the neighbouring country, of how much its interest declines with its becoming common: for during the latter days of the tyranny of Robespierre, the

2

CHAP.

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blime and Pathetic.

executions of pretended state criminals of every rank, age, sex, and condition were scarcely noticed, or attended by any but a hired rabble; Of the Suand that atrocious and despicable monster is said to have procured the condemnation and execution of the nine young and beautiful girls, who presented a chaplet to the Prussian commander at Verdun, merely to rouse the wearied attention of the populace by a more affecting exhibition *.

5. Let us suppose that, during this period of juridical slaughter and methodical murder, all the theatres of Paris had been shut; and all dramatic exhibitions suppressed for an indefinite time; and that, at the latter end of it, when men had supped full with horrors, and grown familiar with scenes of real distress, such a theatrical spectacle, as that above described, had been announced for one night only then, I think that even the scaffold of Citizen Egalité himself would have been forsaken for the mimic sufferings of Andromaque or Zayre.

6. Much must, however, in all cases, depend upon the different degrees of sensibility of different individuals. The feelings of some men are so tremblingly alive, that almost every degree of mimic distress interests them; and

Memoires d'un detenu.

Y

CHAP.

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those of others so immoveably torpid, that scarcely any real sufferings, but their own, can Of the Sublime and affect them. Large masses of people taken Pathetic. collectively are, indeed, naturally composed of nearly the same materials: but, nevertheless, their natural feelings are greatly altered by education, government, and habit of life. The Romans, a nation of soldiers, hardened by the trade of war, delighted in seeing trained slaves contend for their lives with each other, and with wild beasts: but when the Asiatic monarch, who, by living among them, had acquired their taste, treated his subjects with such a spectacle, they, at first, turned away from it with expressions of horror and affright; but, nevertheless, soon became reconciled to such diversions; as we also should, if they were once introduced amongst us: for the passions, as well as the senses, easily become vitiated; and acquire a relish for higher stimulants. Cockfighting is only a humbler species of the same diversion, as hunting is only a humbler species of war; and a taste for the one would soon rise into a taste for the other.

7. Not that I mean to infer that men ever feel delight in seeing pain and agony, either suffered or inflicted: for, in these cases, it is not with the sufferings, but with the exertions

Liv. Hist. lib. xli. c. 20.