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PREFACE.

THE great encouragentent we have received, during the twelve

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months that have elapfed fince the late improvement of our Miscellany, has affured us of the public approbation of a measure, which we adopted with great deference and fubmiffion; and the tranfactions of that period have concurred to evince its indifpenfable neceffity. Exclusive of some domestic events, of which another cen tury, perhaps, will entertain a more unanimous opinion, the nation has been engaged in a war, which may involve in its confequences the fecurity of our Oriental poffeffions; a confideration, which has led many intelligent perfons to enquire, how far the acquifition of those poffeffions has been beneficial, and how far the lofs of them may be detrimental, to the real prosperity and happiness of the nation; experience having already demonftrated, that, with a diminished empire, our political fun continues to fhine with undiminished luftre.-The events too, in a neighbouring kingdom, are of fuch magnitude, as to attract the attention of every enlightened mind; a fovereign, flying from the capital of his dominions; conducted back, like a captive, by his subjects, yet acknowledged fill as their king, and careffed by all the wife and moderate; those subjects, so lately the flaves, and even the idolators, of defpotifm, prefenting to their king a new constitution, founded on what they conceive to be the inherent rights of every free people; this conftitution (which we have prefented to our readers entire) accepted by the king, with all the appearances of that goodness of heart which he undoubtedly poffeffes; an affembly of legiflators, after having long acted as dictators of the national will, voluntarily announcing their own diffolution, the moment they had completed their great conftitutional labours, and confenting to their own exclufion from the fucceeding legiflature; and this new affembly uniting with the king, in preparations for war against all the enemies of the revolution, whether foreign or domeftic.

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Thefe circumstances (of which fuch oppofite opinions have beeri formed in our own country, as to produce all the agitation, and even outrages, which fometimes fucceed intemperate difcuffions) indicate events, in the present year, of equal magnitude; events, which we fhall not attempt to divine, or to anticipate; but which, whatever afpect affairs may affume, will form, no doubt, a remarkable epocha in the political hiftory of Europe. To events of fuch confequence to mankind in general, (and in which our own country, from its vicinity to the scene of action, may be more particularly interested) we could not have given that attention which their importance required, in the limits to which our Miscellany was before confined. We are now enabled to relate them, not by the defultory notice of occafional paragraphs, in which the connection could feldom be kept entire, but in the regular form of hiftorical narration; uniting thus the immediate advantages of a Monthly Communication with the deliberate and mature information of an Annual Register.

The various articles of inftruction and entertainment, which are best calculated to enrich a Miscellaneous Publication, shall continue to be selected with affiduity and care; and the most respectful attention will be paid to the favours of our correfpondents, for which, on this commencement of our NINETIETH VOLUME, we are happy to return our grateful acknowledgements. In a word, our beft endeavours

will be exerted, not only to render the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE an accurate and faithful HISTORY OF THE TIMES, but to merit its wonted diftinction as the FAVOURITE REPOSITORY, not merely of what may entertain the vacant hour, but of whatever may engage the attention of an intelligent and inquifitive mind, and affift the efforts of ingenuous and afpiring virtue.

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Tragic Mufe.

To wake the foul by tender ftrokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;
To make mankind in confcious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
For this the Tragic Muse first trod the stage,
Commanding tears to ftream through every age;
Tyrants no more their favage natures kept,
And foes to virtue wonder'd how they wept.

POPE

look upon with pleafure;' and fuch a pleasure we meet with in the reprefentation of a well-written tragedy.

With pleasure Heaven itself furveys

T is not surprising that that part of the drama, which we call Tragedy, should have met with univerfal encouragement in all the polite nations of the world: for a perfect tragedy is one of the nobleft productions of human nature, and is capable of A brave man firuggling with the storms affording one of the most delightful And greatly falling with a falling state. and improving entertainments. virtuous man, ftruggling with misfortunes, is fuch a fpectacle,' fays an illustrious ancient, as the gods might

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of fate,

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POPE.

Diverfions of this kind wear out of our thoughts every thing that is mean

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and little. They cherish and cultivate that humanity which is the ornament of our nature. They foften infolence, footh affliction, and reconcile the mind to the difpenfations of Providence.

Tragedy, indeed, is no other than philofophy introduced upon the flage, retaining all its natural properties, remitting nothing of its native gravity, but affifted and embellifhed by other favouring circumstances: for it is not only of a truly philofophical nature, but to all the force and gravity of wisdom it adds graces and allurements which are peculiarly its cwn-the harmony of verfe, the contrivance of the fable, the excellence of imitation, and the truth of action*. Confidered as an exhibition of the characters and behaviour of men, in fome of the most trying and critical fituations of life, Tragedy exhibits a noble idea of poetry. It is a direct imitation of human manners and actions. Unlike the epic poem, it does not exhibit characters by the narration and defcription of the poet: for the poet himself disappears; and the very perfonages are fet before us, acting and fpeaking what is fuitable to their characters. Hence, no kind of writing is fo great a trial of the author's profound knowledge of the human heart. No kind of writing has fo rauch power, when happily executed, to raise the ftrongeft emotions. It is a mirror in which we behold ourselves, and the calamities to which we are expofed; a faithful copy of the human paffions, with all their dreadful effects, when they are fuffered to become extravagant and uncontrouled.

The intention of Tragedy, in fhort, is to improve our virtuous fenfibility; and, in course, in its general strain

and fpirit, it is favourable to virtue. Love and admiration of virtuous cha racters, compaffion for the injured and diftreffed, and indignation against the authors of their fufferings, are the fentiments the most generally excited by this high and diftinguished fpecies of moral compofition.

The Tragic Mufe, moreover, has been thought highly favourable to Liberty. A noble writer, fpeaking of the French nation, as it existed long before the late great revolution in that country, expresses himself thus: In the dramatic art, the French have been fo happy, as to raise their stage to as great perfection as the genius of their nation will permit. But the high fpirit of Tragedy can ill fubfift where the Spirit of liberty is wanting. The genius of this poetry confifts in the lively reprefentation of the disorders and mifery of the Great; to the end that the people, and thofe of a lower condition, may be taught the better to content themselves with privacy, enjoy their fafer ftate, and prize the equality and justice of their guardian laws. If this be found agreeable to the juft tragic model, which the Ancients have delivered to us, it will eafily be conceived how little fuch a model is proportioned to the capacity or tafte of those, who, in a long feries of degrees, from the lowest peafant to the highest slave of royal blood, are taught to idolize the next in power above them, and think nothing fo adorable as that unlimited greatness, and tyrannic power, which is raised at their own expence, and exercised over themselves +.'

Tragedy, like other arts, was rude and imperfect in its commencement. Among the Greeks, from whom our

* A tragedy is a fable exhibited to the view, and rendered palpable to the fenfes ; and every decoration of the ftage is contrived to impofe the delufion on the fpectator, by confiting with the imitation. It is addreffed to the imagination, through which it opens to itself a communication to the heart, where it is to excite certain paffions and affection: Stat Charter being perfonified, and each event exhibited, the attention of the and be is greatly captivated, and the imagination fo far aids in the delufion, as te 43p. with the reprefentation. Mrs. Montague's Essay on the Writings and Ger hakipeare.

† Lord Shaftesbury's Advice to an Author, Part II. 3

dramatic

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