ent of the agent, is a
double operation which I do not pretend, thro' any part of it, to
understand. All actions may most properly, in their own nature, I think,
be called _neutral_; tho' in common discourse, and in writing where
perfection is not requisite, we often term them _vicious_, transferring on
these occasions the attributive from the _agent_ to the _action_; and
sometimes we call them _evil_, or of pernicious effect, by transferring,
in like manner, the injuries incidentally arising from certain actions to
the life, happiness, or interest of human beings, to the natural
operation, whether moral or physical, of the _actions_ themselves: _One_
is a colour thrown on them by the _intention_, in which I think consists
all moral turpitude, and the _other_ by effect: If therefore a Dramatic
writer will use certain managements to keep vicious intention as much as
possible from our notice, and make us sensible that no evil effect
follows, he may pass off actions of very vicious motive, without much ill
impression, as mere _incongruities_, and the effect of _humour_
only;--_words these_, which, as applied to human conduct, are employed, I
believe, to cover a great deal of what may deserve much harder
appellation.

The _difference_ between suffering an evil effect to take place, and of
preventing such effect, from actions precisely of the same nature, is so
great, that it is often _all the difference_ between Tragedy and Comedy.
The Fine gentleman of the Comic scene, who so promptly draws his sword,
and wounds, without killing, some other gentleman of the same sort; and
_He_ of Tragedy, whose stabs are mortal, differ very frequently in no
other point whatever. If our _Falstaff_ had really _peppered_ (as he calls
it) _two rogues in buckram suits_, we must have looked for a very
different conclusion, and have expected to have found _Falstaff_'s
Essential prose converted into blank verse, and to have seen him move off,
in slow and measured paces, like the City Prentice to the tolling of a
Passing bell;--"_he would have become a cart as well as another, or a
plague on his bringing up._"

Every incongruity in a rational being is a source of laughter, whether it
respects manners, sentiments, conduct, or even dress, or situation;--but
the greatest of all possible incongruity is vice, whether in the intention
itself, or as transferred to, and becoming more manifest in action;--it is
inconsistent with moral agency, nay, with rat