was censured by one of the best poets and critics of

that or any age :—

migravit ab aure voluptas

Omnis ad incertos oculos, et gaudia vana:

Quatuor aut plures aulæa premuntur in horas,

Dum fugiunt equitum turmæ, peditumque catervæ. -Letters on a Regicide Peace.

DRAMATIC COMPOSITION.-It is generally observed, that no species of writing is so difficult as the dramatic. It must indeed appear so, were we to consider it upon one side only. It is a dialogue, or species of composition, which in itself requires all the mastery of a complete writer with grace and spirit to support. We may add, that it must have a fable too, which necessarily requires invention, one of the rarest qualities of the human mind. It would surprise us, if we were to examine the thing critically, how few good original stories there are in the world. The most celebrated borrow from each other, and are content with some new turn; some corrective, addition, or embellishment. Many of the most celebrated writers in that way can claim no other merit. I do not think La Fontaine has one original story. And if we pursue him to those, who are his originals, the Italian writers of tales and novels, we shall find most even of them drawing from antiquity, or borrowing from the Eastern world, or adopting and decorating the little popular stories they found current and traditionary in their country. Sometimes they laid the foundation of their tale in real fact. Even after all their borrowing from so many funds, they are still far from opulent. How few stories has Boccace, which are tolerable, and how much fewer are there, which you would desire to read twice.

But this general difficulty is greatly increased when we come to the drama. Here a fable is essential; a fable which is to be conducted with rapidity, clearness, consistency, and surprise, without any, or certainly with very little, aid from narrative. This is the reason, that generally nothing is more dull in telling than the plot of a play. It is seldom or never a good story in itself; and in this particular, some of the greatest writers, both in ancient and modern theatres, have failed in the most miserable manner. It is well a play has still so many requisites to complete it, that, though the writer should not succeed in these particulars, and therefore should be so far from perfection, there are still enough left, in which he may please, at less expense of labour to himself, and perhaps too with more real advantage to his auditory. It is indeed very difficult happily to excite the passions, and draw the characters of men. But our nature leads us more directly to such paintings than to the invention of a story; we are imitative animals; and we are more naturally led to imitate the exertions of character and passion, than to observe and describe a series of events, and to discover those relations and dependencies in them, which will please. Nothing can be more rare than this quality. Herein, as I believe, consists the difference between the inventive and the descriptive genius. By the inventive genius, I mean the creator of agreeable facts and incidents; by the descriptive, the delineator of characters, manners, and passions. Imitation calls us to this; we are in some cases almost forced to it, and it is comparatively easy. More observe the characters of men than the order of things; to the one we are

formed by nature, and by that sympathy, from which we are so strongly led to take a part in the passions and manners of our fellow-men. The other is, as it were, foreign and extrinsical. Neither, indeed, can anything be done, even in this, without invention. But it is obvious that this invention is of a kind altogether different from the former. However, though the more sublime genius, and the greatest art, are required for the former, yet the latter, as it is more common and more easy, so it is more useful, and administers more directly to the great business of life.-Hints for an Essay on the Drama.

DANCING. Those noble and majestic movements, which make part of the entertainment of the most wise, of the education of the most virtuous, which improve the manners without corrupting the morals of all civilized people, and of which, among uncivilized people, the professors have their due share of admiration.-Speech against Warren Hastings.

APHORISMS.

When ministry rests upon public opinion, it is not, indeed, built upon a rock of adamant; it has, however, some stability. But when it stands upon private humour, its structure is of stubble, and its foundation is on quicksand.-Thoughts on the Cause of the present Discontents.

It should seem to my way of conceiving such matters, that there is a very wide difference in reason and policy, between the mode of proceeding on the irregular conduct of scattered individuals, or even of bands of men, who disturb order within the state, and the civil dissensions which may, from time to time, on great questions, agitate the several com

T

munities which compose a great empire. It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic, to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.-Speech on Conciliation with America.

It is by lying dormant a long time, or being at first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a people.-Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.

Civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the people. They vitiate their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert even the natural taste and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens in a hostile light, the whole body of our nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very names of affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred and rage, when the communion of our country is dissolved.-Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.

Wise men often tremble at the very things which fill the thoughtless with security.-Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.

Calamity is unhappily the usual season of reflection; and the pride of men will not often suffer reason to have any scope until it can be no longer of service.Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.

Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.-Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.

I know it is common for men to say, that such and such things are perfectly right-very desirable; but that, unfortunately, they are not practicable.

Oh! no, sir, no. Those things, which are not practicable, are not desirable. There is nothing in the world really beneficial, that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding, and a welldirected pursuit. There is nothing that God has judged good for us, that he has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world. If we cry, like children, for the moon, like children, we must cry on.-Speech on Economical Reform.

Moderate affection, and satiated enjoyment, are cold and respectful; but an ardent and injured passion is tempered up with wrath, and grief, and shame, and conscious worth, and the maddening sense of violated right. A jealous love lights his torch from the firebrands of the furies.-Speech on Economical Reform.

He censures God who quarrels with the imperfections of man.-Speech at Bristol previous to the Election.

We know, and what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort. .. We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is by his constitution a religious animal; that atheism is against, not only our reason, but our instincts; and that it cannot prevail long.-Reflections on the Revolution in France.

I never will suppose that fabric of a state to be the worst of all political institutions, which, by experience, is found to contain a principle favourable (however latent it may) to the increase of mankind. -Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Too much idleness, I have observed, fills up a man's time much more completely, and leaves him less his own master, than any sort of employment whatsoever.-Letter to Richard Shakleton.