fomehow or other, had disobliged my comman ding officer. But I forget and forgive, as the fay ing is; and, thanks to fuch as your Honour, I can make shift to live. It is true, I have seen. others get halberts, ay, and commiffions too, that were not better men than myself;-but that don't fignify. It will be all the fame an hundred years. bence." Without all the happy Stoicism of the foldier, we may often foothe the pangs of envy, and the. pinings of difcontent, by the confideration of that period, when they shall cease to difquiet, when time fhall have unplumed the pageantry of grandeur, narrowed the domains of wealth, and withered the arm of power.

Nor will this philofophy of time convey a lefs important leffon to the fuccessful than to the unfortunate. It will moderate the luxurious indulgence of the rich, and restrain the wanton or useless exertions of the powerful. Every one who can look back on a moderately long life, will re- · member a fucceffion of envied poffeffors of wealth and influence, whose luxury a thousand flatterers were wishing to share, whose favour a crowd of dependents were striving to obtain. Let those who now occupy their place, attend to the effects of that wealth enjoyed, of tho favours bestowed. Let them caft up the fu... of pleasure which was produced by the one, of gra L 3

titude

titude or felf-fatisfaction procured by the other. If there are any whom elevation has made giddy, or power rendered infolent, let them think how long that elevation can endure, how far that power can extend; let them confider in how fhort a space the influence of their predeceffors has ceafed to be felt, how foon their appointments have made room for the appointments of others; how few of their dependents and favourites fur vive, and of those few how very small a part acknowledge their benefactor. If some of the actions of fuch eminent perfons there are which the world still remembers with approbation, and individuals own with gratitude, they are probably fuch as, in this review of the paft, it will be ufeful for their fucceffors to obferve and to imitate. Those have obtained a victory over time, which is the nobleft excitement and animation to virtue; that honeft fame, of which the confcioufnefs gives its highest enjoyment to the present, which the future can neither reproach nor over

come.

No. 49. SATURDAY, Jan. 7. 1785.

N°

the

fubject tends to throw more light on history of mankind, or their progress in the different fituations of fociety, than their public amufements, or the state of those arts which contribute to their entertainment.

Comedy, which confifts in the dramatic reprefentation of human characters in a ridiculous point of view, makes a diftinguished figure among the amufements of mankind. The following reflections are thrown together on the hiftory of Comedy, as they may afford fome useful obfervations on the progrefs of manners and of arts, as well as introduce a continuation of the remarks I formerly made on the moral effects of the drama.

The firft and original method in which Ridicule exercised itself in dramatic representation, appears to have confifted, not so much in giving a view of the character of the person to be exhibited on the stage, as in representing a particular individual in a ludicrous fituation. To point out the feelings of the character,-to reprefent the turn of mind,-to difplay the humour or inter

nal

nal features of the man, was not so much the ob ject, as to bring the person himself on the stage,. and to raise ridicule in the audience, by making. him commit fome action abfurd, droll, out of place, or inconfiftent. A man respected for dig. nity, and in a reputable fituation, is brought upon the stage, not to exhibit his dignity as falfé and affected, not to represent the real or internal. feelings of his mind, or to point out those fea* tures by which his affumed character may be expofed, but merely with a view to make him commit fome abfurd or mean action, inconfiftent with the gravity and refpectable tenor of his usual conduct...

Such is the exhibition of Ariftophanes's So crates. No hiftory of human character is given, no display of the character of Socrates in particular; nor is any principle or feature of his mind represented. The author confines himself fingly to making Socrates do things upon the stage unworthy of himself, or of his character; and the audience is entertained with the contraft, is amufed with this performance of mean or little ac tions, by a man of a grave and ferious déportment. The ridicule in this case does not give a view of the character, but is confined to the joke arifing from the action performed, compared with that of the man who performs it. Socrates

is not made ridiculous by doing what is like, but what is unlike himself.

This obfervation need not be confined to the Clouds of Ariftophanes, but may be farther extended, and appears indeed to comprehend the general characteristic of all early Comedies, written or represented before people have arrived at a great degree of refinement.

Two reafons may be affigned for this being the general characteristic of early Comedies.

1f, Men in an early age are not reasoners.The bulk of the people at least are not accustomed to make general conclufions and reflections on human character. They would not therefore be amufed by general exhibitions of character, by Comedies which reprefented actions as displaying only the internal features and original caufes of human conduct. Such an exhibition would not be adapted to their taste, or the state of their minds. The rude representation of a particular perfon, who does actions abfurd in themselves, or abfurd in him to perform, is the only thing which can produce their laughter, or afford them a comic entertainment.

2d, Men in an early age, who have not made much progrefs in refinement, will receive a peculiar pleasure in feeing the character of an individual, of a person known to themselves, exhi