It may be proper to observe in this Place, that the _Business_
of COMEDY is to exhibit the whimsical _unmischievous Oddities_,
_Frolics,_ and _Foibles_ of _Persons_ in _real Life_; And also to
_expose_ and _ridicule_ their _real Follies_, _Meanness_, and _Vices_.
The _former_, it appears, is more pleasurable to the Audience, but the
_latter_ has the Merit of being more instructive.
The _Business_ of TRAGEDY is to exhibit the _Instability_ of _human_
Grandeur, and the unexpected _Misfortunes_ and _Distresses_ incident
to the _Innocent_ and _Worthy_ in all Stations.--And also to shew the
terrible Sallies and the miserable Issue and Punishment of ungovern'd
Passions and Wickedness.--The _former_ softens the Heart and fills it
with Compassion, Humility and Benevolence.--Compositions of this Sort
are the highest, most admirable, and useful in all Nature, when they
are finish'd with Propriety and Delicacy, and justly wrought up
with the Sublime and Simplicity.--The _latter_ Species of _Tragedy_
terrifies and shocks us, in exhibiting both the Crimes and the
Punishments. It threatens us into Moderation and Justice, by shewing
the terrible Issue of their Contraries. Pieces of this Sort, conducted
with Propriety, and carrying Application to ourselves, can scarcely be
desireable; But as they are generally conducted, they amount only to
giving us an absurd Representation of a Murther committed by some
furious foaming _Basha_, or _Sultan_.
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