or_ tear my heart;
And snatch me o'er the earth, or thro' the air,
To Thebes, to Athens, when he will, and where.

Our fair readers are also desired to attend to what a celebrated
Critic[42] of a neighbouring nation says on the nature and design of
Tragedy, from the rules laid down by the same great Antient.

'Tragedy, says he, makes man _modest_, by representing the great masters
of the earth humbled; and it makes him _tender_ and _merciful_, by
shewing him the _strange accidents of life_, and the _unforeseen
disgraces_ to which the most important persons are subject.

'But because Man is naturally timorous and compassionate, he may fall
into other extremes. Too much fear may shake his constancy of mind, and
too much compassion may enfeeble his equity. 'Tis the business of
Tragedy to regulate these two weaknesses. It prepares and arms him
against _disgraces_, by shewing them so frequent in the most
considerable persons; and he will cease to fear extraordinary accidents,
when he sees them happen to the _highest_ part of Mankind. And still
more efficacious, we may add, the example will be, when he sees them
happen to the _best_.

'But as the end of Tragedy is to teach men not to fear too weakly
_common misfortunes_, it proposes also to teach them to spare their
compassion for objects that _deserve it_. For there is an _injustice_ in
being moved at the afflictions of those who _deserve to be miserable_.
We may see, without pity, Clytemnestra slain by her son Orestes in
AEschylus, because she had murdered Agamemnon her husband; yet we cannot
see Hippolytus die by the plot of his Stepmother Phaedra, in Euripides,
without compassion, because he died not, but for being chaste and
virtuous.'

'These are the great authorities so favourable to the stories that end
unhappily. And we beg leave to reinforce this inference from them, That
if the temporary sufferings of the Virtuous and the Good can be
accounted for and justified on Pagan principles, many more and
infinitely stronger reasons will occur to a Christian Reader in behalf
of what are called unhappy Catastrophes from the consideration of the
doctrine of _future rewards_; which is every-where strongly inforced in
the History of Clarissa.

'Of this (to give but one instance) an ingenious Modern, distinguished
by his rank, but much more for his excellent defence of some of the most
important doctrines of Christianity, appears convinced in the conclusion
of a pat