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height, have different periods of birth and increment and to give opportunity for thefe different periods, it is neceffary that the cause of every emotion be prefent to the mind a due time; for an emotion is not brought to its height but by reiterated impreffions. We know this to be the cafe of emotions arifing from objects of fight; being scarce fenfible of any emotion in a quick fucceffion even of the most beautiful objects: and if this hold in the fucceffion of original perceptions, how much more in the fucceffion of ideas?

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Though all this while, I have been only defcribing what paffeth in the mind of every one, and what every one must be confcious of, it was neceffary to explain the thing at large; because, however clear in the internal conception, it is far from being fo when defcribed in words. Ideal prefence, though of general importance, hath scarce ever been touched by any writer; and at any rate it could not be overlooked in accounting for the effects produced by fiction. Upon this point, the reader I guess has prevented me: it already must have occurred to him, that if, in reading, ideal prefence be the means by which our paffions are moved, it makes no difference whether the fubject be a fable or a reality: when ideal prefence is complete, we perceive every object as in our fight; and the mind, totally occupied with an interesting event, finds no leifure for reflection of any fort. This reafon

ing is confirmed by conftant and univerfal experience. Let us take under confideration the meeting of Hector and Andromache in the fixth book of the Iliad, or fome of the paffionate fcenes in King Lear: thefe pictures of human life, when we are fufficiently engaged, give an impreffion of reality not lefs diftinct than that given by Tacitus defcribing the death of Otho: we never once reflect whether the ftory be true or feigned; reflection comes afterward, when we have the scene no longer before our eyes. This reafoning will appear in a ftill clearer light, by oppofing ideal prefence to ideas raised by a curfory narrative; which ideas being faint, obscure, and imperfect, occupy the mind fo little as to folicit reflection. And accordingly, a curt narrative of feigned incidents is never relished : flight pleasure it affords, is more than counterbalanced by the difguft it infpires for want of truth.

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To fupport the foregoing theory, I add what I reckon a decifive argument; which is, that even genuine hiftory has no command over our paffions but by ideal prefence only; and therefore that with respect to the moving our paffions, genuine history stands upon the fame footing with fable: to me it appears clear, that our fympathy muft vanish as foon as we begin to reflect upon the incidents related in either; for if the reflection that a story is a pure fiction prevent our fympathy, fo will equally the reflection that the perF4

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fons defcribed are no longer exifting, and confequently no longer miferable: a man long dead, and infenfible now of paft misfortunes, cannot move our pity more than if he had never existed. What effect, for example, can the belief of the rape of Lucretia have to raise our fympathy, when she died above 2000 years ago, and hath at prefent no painful feeling of the injury done her? The effect of hiftory in point of inftruction, depends in fome measure upon its veracity; but hiftory cannot reach the heart, while we indulge any reflection upon the facts: fuch reflection, if engage our belief, never fails at the fame time to poifon our pleasure, by convincing us that our fympathy for those who are dead and gone is abfurd. And if reflection be laid afide, hiftory ftands upon the fame footing with fable: what effect either may have to raise our fympathy, depends on the vivacity of the ideas they raise ; and with respect to that circumstance, fable is generally more fuccessful than history.

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Of all the means for making an impreffion of ideal prefence, theatrical representation is the moft powerful. That words independent of action have the fame power in a lefs degree, every one of fenfibility must have felt: a good tragedy will extort tears in private, though not fo forci→ bly as upon the stage. This power belongs also to painting: a good hiftorical picture makes a deeper impreffion than can be made by words, though not equal to what is made by theatrical

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action. And as ideal prefence depends on a lively impreffion, painting seems to poffefs a middle place between reading and acting: in making an impreffion of ideal prefence, it is not lefs fuperior to the former than inferior to the latter.

It must not however be thought, that our paffions can be raised by painting to fuch a height as can be done by words: a picture being confined to a single instant of time, cannot take in a fucceffion of incidents: and though the impreffion it makes is the deepest that can be made instantaneously, yet feldom can a paffion be raised to any height in an instant, or by a single impreffion : it was observed above, that our paffions, thofe especially of the fympathetic kind, require a fuc ceffion of impreffions; and for that reafon, reading, and still more acting, have greatly the advantage, by the opportunity of reiterating impreffions without end.

Upon the whole, it is by means of ideal prefence that our paffions are excited; and till words produce that charm, they avail nothing: even real events intitled to our belief, must be conceived prefent, and paffing in our fight, before they can move us. And this theory ferves to explain feveral phenomena otherwife unaccountable. A misfortune happening to a stranger, makes a lefs impreffion than happening to a man we know, even where we are no way interested in him: our acquaintance with this man, however flight, aids the conception of his fuffering in our pre

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fence. For the fame reason, we are little moved with any distant event; because we have more difficulty to conceive it prefent, than an event that happened in our neighbourhood.

Every one is fenfible, that describing a past event as prefent, has a fine effect in language: for what other reason than that it aids the conception of ideal prefence? Take the following example.

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And now with fhouts the shocking armies clos'd,
To lances lances, fhields to fhields oppos'd;
Host against host the shadowy legions drew,
The founding darts an iron tempest flew ;
Victors and vanquifh'd join promifcuous cries,
Triumphing shouts and dying groans arise,
With ftreaming blood the flipp'ry field is dy'd,
And flaughter'd heroes fwell the dreadful tide.

In this paffage we may obferve how the writer, inflamed with the subject, insensibly advances from the past time to the prefent; led to this form of narration by conceiving every circumftance as paffing in his own fight: which at the fame time has a fine effect upon the reader, by presenting things to him as a fpectator. But this change from the past to the prefent requires fome preparation; and is not fweet where there is no ftop in the fenfe; witnefs the following paffage.

Thy fate was next, O Phæftus! doom'd to feet
The great Idomeneus' protended steel;
Whom Borus fent (his fon and only joy)
From fruitful Tarne to the fields of Troy.

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