Α PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE SOURCE OF THE PLEASURES DERIVED FROM TRAGIC REPRESENTATIONS. CHAP. I. Difficulty of the Problem proposed to be resolved. WHY Tragic Representations should produce pleasing emotions in the human breast, or, to state the question in other words, why we should delight in any thing painful, such as pictures and images of distress, is a question that has been proposed and investigated by many eminent writers and critics; but their number hardly exceed the diversity of opinions which they have advanced on the subject. It is certain, however, that there can be only one proper answer; for when any particular object, representation, or circumstance, invariably produces an impression of a pleasing character, this impression must obviously arise from some fixed principle B in our nature called into action by the agency of this object, representation, or circumstance. When, therefore, different causes or principles of action are assigned, they must be all founded in error except one. When I except one, I do not mean to say, that one must be right, for it is possible that all may be wrong; and it is also possible, that the true cause may never be discovered. I mean, therefore, merely to say, that there can be only one true cause, whether discovered or not; and that all other causes must necessarily be erroneous. It is easy to give an ingenious solution of a difficult problem; but though a thousand different solutions may appear plausible and specious, it is still not so easy to satisfy the mind, that the question is resolved, even by the most satisfactory of them, if it be mingled with the slightest error. Whatever is partly false will generally be found to leave the mind more or less unsatisfied, more or less doubtful: it may even have many reasons to believe what it is told ;—it may perceive none for entertaining a different opinion; but still, from not perceiving its way clearly, it feels not that complete gratification which results from the discovery and clear perception of truth; for whenever truth bursts through the mists of error, it flashes instantaneous conviction upon us, and we not only perceive but feel its evidence, even though it should admit of no demonstrative certainty. Before I investigate, however, the theories which have been adopted by my predecessors on the present subject, or offer a new one of my own, may it not be asked, whether any real pleasure arises from Tragic Representations? Some rigid theologians, whom I should be sorry to confound with divines of expanded minds, and rational virtue, tell us, that it is a pleasure arising from the depravity of our own nature, and maintain, that, while the heart is imbued with the redeeming spirit of sanctity and religion, the emotions produced by theatrical representation of every description are loathsome and offensive to us. To this argument I reply, that it rests altogether on an appeal to the feelings of a particular class of people; whereas pleasure and pain, being modifications of feeling founded in the general nature of man, it is only by consulting the common feeling of mankind that we can unequivocally ascertain what is pleasing or displeasing to this general nature; for, with regard to individuals, general laws have no application. Every deviation from the general nature of man is determined by a particular law of its own; and it accords neither with religion, philosophy, nor common sense, to bring forward particular laws in accounting for general effects. It will be found hereafter, however, that tragic emotions, or tragic pleasures, are more nearly allied to virtue than moralists are aware of, or, at least, than they seem willing to believe. At the same time, we cannot be surprised, that the pleasure resulting from tragic sources should appear mysterious, and be placed among the more abstruse phenomena of human nature, when we reflect, that in all the pursuits of human life, however various and complicated they may appear to the torpid eye of slumbering intellect, and however endlessly diversified may be the causes whence they immediately spring, and by which they are influenced and determined in their career, the grand cause to which they are all subservient, and by which they are eternally governed, is the love of present, or the hope of future happiness. This original cause is made known to us, not by arguments, a priori, which are often found to be the mere creatures of imagination, but by actual experience, which precedes, in its evidence, all theoretical speculations. The love of happiness is the universal cause to which we must refer all the springs and motives of human actions. Its dominion extends over all the energies, tendencies, and operations of our sensitive and intellectual nature. Those philosophers have, therefore, been led into error, who call the love of fame, the "Universal Passion;" for even he who seeks to make his name known to all the ends of the earth, and to make admiring nations acquainted with his physical powers, or intellectual might, has no object in view but the real, or, if the reader choose to call it, the imaginary, happiness which he enjoys by anticipation at the moment, and hopes to realize at some future period. It is true, indeed, that we do not all pursue the same road to happiness; but this arises, either from adventitious circumstances, which check the original tendency of our natural propensities, or because what constitutes the happiness of one man does not constitute the happiness of another, even when fortune has pandered to all the cravings of unsatisfied desire, or submitted to all the caprice of human eccentricity. Happiness, however, under one shape or other, is the primum mobile of human actions. How fame, or the opinion which others entertain of our real, or supposed merits, should be productive of this happiness, the love of which is the primary cause, and the attainment of which is the final object of human actions, is a question which belongs not to our present investigation. The knowledge of the fact is sufficient for all the purposes for which it has been mentioned, and the fact cannot be controverted; for who would seek after fame unless it gave him pleasure, and what is pleasure but happiness, or one of its modifications? All our actions, then, without exception, originate from this source. The miser who abstains from the enjoyment of his wealth;-the soldier who rushes into the field of battle, and encounters danger in all its terrific and appalling aspects ;-the poet who seeks inspiration |