chiefly cultivated. A new species of morals, unknown and unattended to among the ancients, the term for which petites morales cannot even be translated into our language, has been introduced, and become a principal object both in conduct and philosophy. Hence the nice perception which French authors have of all the delicate discriminations of character; hence their observance of all the deviations from what is becoming; and hence their talent of describing and representing all the proprieties and improprieties of human conduct. The English writers in general may be possessed of more metaphysical profoundness; but they have not the same lively talent at describing manners, nor the same delicate observation of the different tints and colourings in which they appear.

At the same time it may be observed, that even in Britain some authors have appeared, who have excelled in giving minute pictures of manners, and of the nice features of character. Of these Addison and Sterne may be mentioned as holding a distinguished place.

This is the last improvement which arises in the representation of human characters; when not only their general features, under certain great classes, are exhibited, but when writers descend to, and are able at the same time to point out, the smaller discriminations into which those general classes subdivide themselves, and appear in different men. When

characters are represented in this manner, the writing of comedy is at its perfection; and as the moderns seem to have possessed more of this talent than the ancients, so the comedies of the former seem to excel those of the latter. The ancient comedies contain only the general characters of men and manners, young rakes, old men, parasites, lovers, slaves; but every old man is the same, every young rake is like

every other rake; their pursuits are without distinction; and their slaves have no other discrimination, than that the one half of them are old, faithful, trusty servants, and the other half, lying, plotting, witty rascals.

It may, however, be observed, that this species of writing, in which the moderns have so greatly excelled, is much exposed to corruption and abuse. While the ancient manner of drawing characters is defective, by being too general, there is danger lest this other species become faulty, by being too particular. Men attentive to represent the minute lines, may neglect the more important; and, instead of representing a character which belongs to human kind, they may come to represent only those particular characters which distinguish individuals. Instead of comedies of nature, they may give comedies of manners, fleeting, volatile, uncertain, and as impossible to be reduced to rule as the flimsy modes of fashion. Thus, according to the phrase, that extremes always agree, it may happen that the last improvement in comedy may degenerate into that very abuse for which the rudest and most ancient may be censured. Particular persons may come to be represented on the stage instead of general characters. Something of this kind was some time ago introduced on the English stage; though it may be observed, that this mode of writing owed its success more to the mimic qualities of its author, than to its being approved of by the taste of the audience.

But this is not the only thing to be feared from men's giving minute attention to the smaller parts of character; there is also a danger of its having an improper effect on their own character and conduct. When their attention is chiefly bestowed on the little parts of conduct, they may come to neglect or overlook the greater. Manner may be put in the place

of substance; and what is frivolous may be preferred to what is manly. As this species of corruption may be considered as the greatest in literary composition, so it is most certainly the greatest in morals. When what is trifling only is regarded, there never can be any splendid exertions of genius; there never can be any real greatness of character. All sublime and manly efforts will be at an end; all noble exertions in the field, and all genuine eloquence in the senate, will be extinguished. Our battles will be bloodless, and, in our speeches, prettiness will be preferred to simplicity and force. 'Tis the leading object in a late series of Letters on Education, to represent the manner of doing a thing as preferable to the thing itself; to point out the frivolous and exterior accomplishments, the graces, as a surer road to advancement, than truth, integrity, or a spirit of independence; than the possession of the greatest knowledge, or the exertion of the most illustrious talents.

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No. 50. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1786.

TRAGEDY', according to the ancient definition quoted in a former paper, purges the passions by exciting them.' Comedy wishes to purge vices and follies by ridicule. In a corrupt age, reason is so weak as to be obliged to call in such allies to her assistance: let her beware that they do not, like the Saxon auxiliaries of our ancestors, usurp the government which they were called to defend.

In the earliest periods of life, ridicule is naturally employed against reason and propriety.-The child who obeys its mother, who is afraid of its governess, who will not be concerned in little plots to deceive both, is laughed at by its bolder and less scrupulous companions. At every age, reason and duty are grave and serious things, in which ridicule finds a contrast that renders her attack more easy, and her sallies more poignant.

The refinement of polished times, as was observed in the foregoing number, does not allow them to find amusement in that gross ridicule which provokes the laughter of a ruder people. But from this very source their subjects of comedy are often of a dangerous kind. They trench upon sacred ground: I mean not as to religion, but in morals they paint those nicer shades of ridicule which are of an equivocal sort between virtue and vice, and often give the spectator leave to laugh, according to his own humour, either at the first or the latter.

In the Ecole des Femmes-and I shall hardly be reckoned unfair when I make the reference to Moliere-most of the maxims which Arnolphe makes Agnes read, are really good moral precepts, which a prudent wife would do well to follow, for her own sake as well as her husband's. There is just as much prudery and suspicion thrown into them, as to allow those who would wish to be less guarded than a good wife ought to be, to hold them in derision.

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The George Dandin of the same author has been already criticised in this moral view by a very able writer. But he has not attended, say its defenders, to the proper moral of the piece; which is to correct a very common sort of weakness as well as of injustice, in old men of low birth and great wealth, who purchase alliance with decayed nobility, and are vain enough to imagine, that a wife, bought

from her necessities, or from the necessities of her family, is to love and respect the husband who has purchased her. But besides that this corrective is applied to the party who may be the weakest, but is certainly the least wicked of the two, such examples conveyed through the medium of Comedy, are always more readily applied to those whom they may mislead, than to those whom they may reform. The images which comedy presents, and the ridicule it excites, being almost always exaggerated, their resemblance to real life is only acknowledged by those whose weaknesses they flatter, whose passions they excuse. They who use the example of the scene for an apology, can easily twist it into that form; they who wish to escape its correction, easily discover the difference between the scenic situation and theirs. The George Dandin, and the Cocu Imaginaire of real life, neither meet with Lubins nor Pictures to abuse them; but the girl who thinks herself entitled to be the Angelique of the piece, will find no difficulty in discovering her good man to be a Dandin; she who wishes her husband to be blind, will never forget the prudent advice of Sganarelle :

Quand vous verriez tout, ne croyez jamais rien.'

Harpagon is held up to detestation by Moliere, for the correction of the old, the avaricious, the usurer, whom the world proscribes, whom his children must hate for his criminal parsimony. Alas! misers and usurers neither read nor see comedies; but the young and the thoughtless are taught to call prudence and economy covetousness and avarice, to be dissipated and extravagant out of pure virtue.

In the cheats of Scapin, the audience is always on the side of the rogue against the poor deluded