But a human facrifice, being altogether inconfiftent with modern manners as producing horror inftead of pity, cannot with any propriety be introduced upon a modern ftage. I must therefore condemn the Iphigenia of Racine, which, instead of the tender and fympathetic paffions, fubftitutes difguft and horror. Another objection occurs againft every fable that deviates fo remarkably from improved notions and fentiments; which is, that if it fhould even command our belief by the authority of hiftory, it appears too fictitious and unnatural to produce a perception of reality: a human facrifice is fo unnatural, and to us fo improbable, that few will be affected with the reprefentation of it more than with a fairy tale. The objection first mentioned strikes also against the Phedra of that author: the Queen's paffion for her ftepfon, tranfgreffing the bounds of nature, creates averfion and horror rather than compaffion. The author in his preface obferves, that the Queen's paffion, however unnatural, was the effect of deftiny and the wrath of the gods; and he puts the fame excufe in her own mouth. But what is the wrath of a heathen God to us Chriftians? we acknowledge no destiny in paffion and if love be unnatural, it never can be relifhed. A fuppofition like what our author lays hold of, may poffibly cover flight improprieties; but it will never engage our fympathy for what appears to us frantic or extravagant. Neither can I relifh the catastrophe of that tragedy. A man of tafte may perufe, without difguft, a Grecian performance defcribing a fea-monster sent by Neptune to deftroy Hippolytus: he confiders, that fuch a ftory might agree with the religious creed of Greece, and may be pleafed with the ftory, as what probably had a frong effect upon a Grecian audience, But See chap. s. part 1. fect. 7. But he cannot have the fame indulgence for fuch a representation upon a modern ftage; becaufe no ftory that carries a violent air of fiction can ever moves us in any confiderable degree. In the Coephores of Efchylus,* Oreftes is made to fay, that he was commanded by Apollo to avenge his father's murder; and yet if he obeyed, that he was to be delivered to the furies, or be ftruck with some horrid malady: the tragedy accordingly concludes with a chorus, deploring the fate of Oreftes, obliged to take vengeance against a mother, and involved thereby in a crime against his will. It is impoffible for any modern to bend his mind to opinions fo irrational and abfurd, which must disgust him in perufing even a Grecian ftory. Again, among the Greeks, grofsly fuperftitious, it was a common opinion that the report of a man's death was a prefage of his death; and Oreftes, in the first act of Electra, spreading a report of his own death in order to blind his mother and her adulterer, is even in that cafe affected with the prefage. Such imbecility can never find grace with a modern audience: it may indeed produce fome compaffion for a people afflicted with abfurd terrors, fimilar to what is felt in perusing a defcription of the Hottentots; but fuch manners will not intereft our affections, nor attach us to the perfonages reprefented. * A&t 2. CHAP. X 4 CHAP. XV. External Signs of Emotions and Paffions. So intimately connected are the foul and body, that every agitation in the former produceth a vifible effect upon the latter. There is, at the fame time, a wonderful uniformity in that operation; each cials of emotions and paffions being invariably attended with an external appearance peculiar to itself.* The external appearances or figns may not improperly be confidered as a natural language, expreffin to all beholders emotions and paflions as they aric in the heart. Hope, fear, joy, grief, are difplaved externally: the character of a man can be read in his face; and beauty, which makes fo deep an impreffion, is known to refult, not fo much from regular features and a fine complexion, as from good nature, good fenfe, fprightlinefs, fweetnefs, or other mental quality, expreffed upon the countenance. Though perfect skill in that language be rare, yet what is generally known is fufficient for the ordinary purposes of life. But by what means we come to underftand the language, is a point of fome intricacy: it cannot be by fight merely; for, upon the most attentive inspection of the human face, all that can be difcerned, are figure, colour, and motion, which, fingly or combined, never can represent a paffion, nor a fentiment: the external fign is indeed visible; but to underf and its meaning, we must be able to connect it with the paffion that caufes it, an operation far beyond * Omnis caim motus animi, fuum quemdam a natura habet vultum et forum et geftum. Cicero, l. 3. De Oratore. yond the reach of eye-fight. Where then is the inftructor to be found that can unveil this fecret connection? If we apply to experience, it is yielded, that from long and diligent obfervation, we may gather, in fome measure, in what manner those we are acquainted with exprefs their paffions externally but with refpect to ftrangers, we are left in the dark; and yet we are not puzzled about the meaning of these external expreffions in a stranger, more than in a bofom companion. Further, had we no other means but experience for understanding the external figns of paffion, we could not expect any degree of fkill in the bulk of individuals: yet matters are fo much better ordered, that the external expreffions of paffion form a language understood by all, by the young as well as the old, by the ignorant as well as the learned I talk of the plain and legible characters of that language for undoubtedly we are much indebted to experience in deciphering the dark and more delicate expreffions. Where then fhall we apply for a folution of this intricate problem, which feems to penetrate deep into human nature? In my mind it will be convenient to fufpend the inquiry, till we are better acquainted with the nature of external figns, and with their operations. Thefe articles, therefore, fhall be premifed. The external figns of paffion are of two kinds, voluntary and involuntary. The voluntary figns are alfo of two kinds: fome are arbitrary, fome natural, Words are obviously voluntary figns and they are alfo arbitrary; excepting a few fimple founds expreffive of certain internal emotions, which founds being the fame in all languages, must be the work of nature; thus the unpremeditated tones of admiration are the fame in all men; as alfo of compaffion, refentment, and defpair, Dramatic writers ought to be well well acquainted with this natural language of paffion: the chief talent of fuch a writer is a ready command of the expreffions that nature dictates to every perfon, when any vivid emotion ftruggles for utterance; and the chief talent of a fine reader is a ready command of tones fuited to thefe expreffions. The other kind of voluntary figns comprehends certain attitudes or geftures that naturally accompany certain emotions with a furprifing uniformity; exceffive joy is expreffed by leaping, dancing, or fome elevation of the body: exceffive grief, by finking or depreffing it and proftration and kneeling have been employed by all nations, and in all ages, to fignify profound veneration. Another circumftance, ftill more than uniformity, demonftrates thefe geftures to be natural, viz. their remarkable conformity or refemblance to the paffions that produce them.* Joy, which is a cheerful elevation of mind, is expreffed by an elevation of body: pride, magnanimity, courage, and the whole tribe of elevating paffions, are expreffed by external geftures that are the fame as to the circumftance of elevation, however diftinguishable in other refpects; and hence an erect pofture is a fign or expreffion of dignity : Two of far nobler fhape, erect and tall, Paradife Loft, book 4. Grief, on the other hand, as well as refpect, which deprefs the mind, cannot, for that reafon, be expreffed more fignificantly than by a fimilar depreffion of the body; and hence, to be caft down, is a common phrafe, fignifying to be grieved or difpirited.† See chap. 2. part 6. One + Infead of a complimental fpeech in addreffing a fuperior the Chinefe deliver the compliment in writing, the fmanefs of the letters being proportioned |