essor_, and the object of it is
rendered more lovely and respectable by the most exalted virtues, pity
for the one rises to respect and affection--indignation against the
other becomes exasperated to hatred, to abhorrence, and disgust; without
the intervention of the will, but merely from the spontaneous movements
of the heart, we sympathise, we silently pray for the one--we recoil
from, we execrate the other. We are pressed by our very nature into the
service of virtue; our souls are up in arms against vice and improbity,
and thus we receive lasting impressions, which, when our hearts are not
very corrupt, must forever after have a favourable influence on our
moral conduct.

To elucidate and confirm our opinions on this subject, we beg leave to
ask, what is that play in which there is such a mass of virtue and
simplicity, and such a number of amiable personages, opposed to such a
mass of villany, subtlety, fraudful avarice, and sensual vice, as in
Pizarro? Not one. The lofty moral sentiments of Rolla, his exquisite
feelings and exalted notions as the patriot, the friend, the lover, are
unequalled. He exists out of himself, and lives but for others: for his
country, his king, his friend, and the dearest object of his love, of
whom being bereft by that very friend, he becomes their brother--their
protector--devotes his life to death to save the man--escaping that,
devotes it again to save their offspring. How much worse, if worse could
be, than a satanic soul must that man have, who could be insensible to
such a character! Who is there whose heart beats in harmony with heroic
virtue and humanity, that would not accept such a death, to have lived
such a life? Need we say more then of Pizarro than to contrast him with
such a character. The only gleam of light that breaks in upon that black
_Erebus_, his heart, is his conduct to Rolla when the latter throws
aside his dagger; and this the poet (Sheridan) has artfully contrived
for the purpose of heightening the lustre of such virtue, by showing
that even that monster could not be insensible to it.

Let us add that in the true liberal spirit of Christian piety, tolerance
and humanity displayed by Las Casas, a popish Spanish priest; in the
noble indignation, the inflexible fortitude, and the intrepid patriotism
and virtue of Orozimbo; in the valour, the beneficent wisdom, and the,
ardent connubial fidelity and affection of the young Alonzo, in the
tenderness, the simplicity,