firft expreffions are naturally broken and interrupted. At last we ought to expect a tide of intermingled fentiments, occafioned by the fluctuation of the mind betwixt the two paffions. Æmilia is made to behavě in a very different manner. With extreme coolness the describes her own fituation, as if she were merely a spectator; or rather the poet takes the task off her hands. Et je me rens, Seigneur, à ces hautes bontés, Et pour preuve, Seigneur, je n'en veux que moimême ; J'ofe avec vanité me donner cet éclat, Puifqu'il change mon coeur, qu'il veut changer l'état. Ma haine va mourir que j'ai crue immortelle, Act 5. Sc. 3. In the tragedy of Sertorius, the Queen, furprised with the news that her lover was affaffinated, inftead of venting any paffion, degenerates into a cool fpectator, even fo much as to inftruct the by-ftanders how a queen ought to behave on fuch an occafion. Viriate. Il m'en fait voir ensemble, et l'auteur, et la caufe. Par cet affaffinat c'eft de moi qu'on difpofe, So much in general upon the genuine fentiments of paffion. I proceed now to particular obfervations. And, first, Paffions are feldom uniform for any confiderable time they generally fluctuate, fwelling and fubfiding by turns, often in a quick fucceffion. X 2 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. Accor dingly, a climax fhows never better than in expreffing a fwelling paffion. The fol lowing paffages fhall fuffice for an illuftra tion. Oroonoko. Can you raife the dead? Purfue and overtake the wings of time? And bring about again, the hours, the days, t The wildnefs of the waves and rocks to this? I would not be the villain that thou think'stCT The following paffage expreffes finely the progress of conviction. Let me not ftir, nor breathe, left I diffolve sd Mourning Bride, att 2. fc. 6. In the progrefs 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. fe. 1. And this leads to a fecond observation, That the different ftages of a paffion, and its different directions, from its birth to its extinction, ought to be carefully reprefented in the fentiments, which otherwife will often be mifplaced. Refentment, for example, when provoked by an atrocious injury, difcharges itself first upon the author. author. Sentiments therefore of revenge take place of all others, and must in some measure be exhaufted before the perfon injured think of pitying himself, or of grie ving 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 ! Trahit donc ma querelle, et ne fait rien pour moi! Oeuvre de tant de jours en un jour effacée! Et |