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talk not here of the fentiments, nor of the language; for thefe come under different heads. I talk of what properly belongs to dialogue writing; where every fingle fpeech, fhort or long, ought to arife from what is said by the formerspeaker, and furnish matter for what comes after, till the end of the scene. In this view, the whole speeches, from first to laft, reprefent fo many links, all connected together in one regular chain. No author, ancient or modern, poffeffes the art of dialogue equal to Shakespear. Dryden, in this particular, may juftly be placed as his oppofite. He frequently introduces three or four perfons fpeaking upon the fame fubject, each throwing out his own fentiments feparately, without regarding what is faid by the reft. I give for an example the first scene of Aurenzebe. Sometimes he makes a number club in relating an event, not to a stranger, fuppofed ignorant of it, but to one another, for the fake merely of speaking. Of this notable fort of dialogue, we have a fpecimen in the first scene of the first part of the Conquest of Granada. In the fecond part of the fame tragedy, VOL. III. fcene

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scene second, the King, Abenamar, and Zulema, make their feparate obfervations, like fo many foliloquies, upon the fluctuating temper of the mob. It puts one in mind of a paftoral, where two fhepherds are introduced reciting couplets alternately, each in praise of his own mistress, as if they were contending for a prize.

The bandying fentiments in this manner, befide an unnatural air, has another bad effect. It stays the course of the action, because it is not productive of any confequence. In Congreve's comedies, the action is often suspended to make way for a play of wit. But of this more particularly in the chapter immediately following.

CHAP.

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T

HE firft chapter unfolds the plea

fure we have in a chain of connected facts. In hiftories of the world, of a country, of a people, this pleasure is but faint; because the connections are flight or obfcure. We find more entertainment in biography, where the incidents are connected by their relation to one person, who makes a figure and commands our attention. But the greatest entertainment of the kind, is afforded by the hiftory of a fingle event, fuppofing it to be interefting. The history of one event produceth a more entire connection among the parts, than the history of one perfon. In the latter, the circumstances are not otherwise connected than by their relation to that person: in the Kk 2 former,

former, the circumftances are connected by the strongest of all relations, that of caufe and effect. Thus, the circumstances of a fingle event, having a mutual connection extremely intimate, form a delightful train: we furvey with peculiar pleasure a number of facts that give birth to each other; and we pafs with ease and fatisfaction from the firft to the laft.

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But this fubject merits a more particular difcuffion. When we confider the chain of caufes and effects in the material world, independent of purpose, defign, or thought, we find a train of incidents in fucceffion, without beginning, middle, or end. Every thing that happens is both a caufe and an effect it is the effect of fomething that goes before, and the cause of one or many things that follow. One incident may affect us more, another lefs; but all of them, great and fmall, are fo many links in the univerfal chain. The mind, in viewing thefe incidents, cannot reft or fettle ultimately upon any one; but is carried along in the train without any clofe.

But

But when the intellectual world is taken under view, in conjunction with the material, the scene is varied. Man acts with deliberation, will, and choice; he acts with a view to fome end, glory, for example, or riches, or conqueft, the procuring happinefs to individuals, or to his country in general; and he proposes means and lays schemes to attain the end propofed. Here is recognised a capital end or event, connected with fubordinate events or incidents by the relation of caufation. In running over a series of fubordinate events, we cannot rest upon any one; because they are presented to us as means only, leading to fome end. But we reft with fatisfaction upon the ultimate event; because there, the purpose, the plan, the aim, of the chief perfon or perfons, is completed and brought to a final conclufion. This indicates a beginning, a middle, and an end, of what Ariftotle calls an entire action*. The ftory naturally begins with defcribing those circumftances which move the distinguished perfon to form a plan, in

*Poct. cap 6. See also cap. 7.

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