fucceffion*.

This fluctuation, in the cafe of a real paffion, will be expreffed externally by proper fentiments; and ought to be imitated in writing and acting. Accordingly, a climax fhows never better than in expreffing a swelling paffion. The following paffages fhall fuffice for an illustra

tion.

Oroonoko.

Can you raise the dead?

Purfue and overtake the wings of time?

And bring about again, the hours, the days,

The years, that made me happy?

Almeria.

Oroonoko, at 2. fc. 2.

How haft thou charm'd

The wildness of the waves and rocks to this?
That thus relenting they have giv'n thee back
To earth, to light and life, to love and me?
Mourning Bride, aɛt 1. Sc. 7.

I would not be the villain that thou think'ft
For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grafp,
And the rich earth to boot.

Macbeth, at 4. Sc. 40

*See chap. 2. part 3.

The

The following paffage expreffes finely the
progrefs of conviction.

Let me not ftir, nor breathe, left I diffolve
That tender, lovely form, of painted air,
So like Almeria. Ha! it finks, it falls;
I'll catch it ere it goes, and grasp her shade.
"Tis life! 'tis warm! 'tis fhe! 'tis fhe herself!
It is Almeria! 'tis, it is my wife!

Mourning Bride, at 2. fc. 6.

In the progress of thought, our resolutions become more vigorous as well as our paffions.

If ever I do yield or give confent,

By any action, word, or thought, to wed

Another Lord; may then juft Heav'n fhow'r

down, &c.

Mourning Bride, at 1. fc. 1.

And this leads to a fecond obfervation, That the different ftages of a passion, and its different directions, from its birth to its extinction, ought to be carefully re-✓ presented in the fentiments, which otherwife will often be mifplaced. Refentment, for example, when provoked by an atrocious injury, discharges itself first upon the author.

author. Sentiments therefore of revenge take place of all others, and must in some measure be exhausted before the perfon injured think of pitying himself, or of grieving for his prefent diftrefs. In the Cid of Corneille, Don Diegue having been affronted in a cruel manner, expreffes scarce any fentiment of revenge, but is totally occupied in contemplating the low fituation to which he was reduced by the affront.

O rage'! ô defefpoir! ô vieilleffe ennemie !
N'ai je donc tant vecu que pour cette infamie?
Et ne fuis-je blanchi dans les travaux guerriers,
Que pour voir en une jour fletrir tant de lauriers?
Mon bras, qu'avec refpect toute l'Espagne admire,
Mon bras, qui tant de fois a sauvé cet empire,
Tant de fois affermi le trône de fon roi,

Trahit donc ma querelle, et ne fait rien pour moi!
O cruel fouvenir de ma gloire paffée!

Oeuvre de tant de jours en un jour effacée!
Nouvelle dignité fatale à mon bonheur !
Precipice élevé d'ou tombe mon honneur !
Faut-il de votre éclat voir triompher le Comte,
Et mourir fans vengeance, ou vivre dans la honte?
Comte, fois de mon Prince à prefent gouverneur,
Ce haut rang n'admet point un homme fans honneur;
Et ton jaloux orgueil par cet affront infigne,
Malgré le choix du Roi, m'en a fù rendre indigne.

Et

Et toi, de mes exploits glorieux inftrument,
Mais d'un corps tout de glace inutile ornement,
Fer jadis tant à craindre, et qui dans cette offense
M'as fervi de parade, et non pas de defense,
Va. quitte deformais le dernier des humains,
Paffe pour me vanger en de meilleures mains.

Le Cid, at 1. Sc. 4.

Thefe fentiments are certainly not what occur to the mind in the first movements of the paffion. In the fame manner as in refentment, the first movements of grief are always directed upon its object. Yet with relation to the fudden and fevere diftemper that seized Alexander bathing in the ri ver Cydnus, Quintus Curtius describes the firft emotions of the army as directed upon themselves, lamenting that they were left without a leader far from home, and had scarce any hopes of returning in fafety. Their King's diftrefs, which muft naturally have been their firft concern, occupies them but in the fecond place according to that author. In the Aminta of Taffo, Sylvia, upon a report of her lover's death, which the believed certain, instead of bemoaning the lofs of a beloved object, turns her

thoughts

thoughts upon herself, and wonders her

heart does not break.

Ohime, ben fon di faffo,

Poi che questa novella non m' uccide.

Alt 4. Sc. 2.

In the tragedy of Jane Shore, Alicia, in the full purpose of destroying her rival, has the following reflection :

Oh Jealoufy! thou bane of pleafing friendship,
Thou worst invader of our tender bofoms;
How does thy rancour poifon all our softness,
And turn our gentle natures into bitterness?

See where he comes! Once my heart's deareft

bleffing,

Now my chang'd eyes are blasted with her beauty, Loathe that known face, and ficken to behold her. AEt 3. fc. I.

These are the reflections of a cool fpectator. A paffion while it has the afcendant, and is freely indulged, fuggefts not to the man who feels it any fentiment to its own prejudice. Reflections like the foregoing, occur not to him readily till the paffion have spent its vigor.

A