has an imitation of reality, how are its laws broken by exhibiting the
world in its true form? The stage may sometimes gratify our wishes; but
if it be truly the "MIRROR OF LIFE," it ought to show us sometimes what
we are to expect.

Dennis objects to the characters that they are not natural or
reasonable; but as heroes and heroines are not beings that are seen
every day, it is hard to find upon what principles their conduct shall
be tried. It is, however, not useless to consider what he says of the
manner in which Cato receives the account of his son's death:--

"Nor is the grief of Cato, in the fourth act, one jot more in nature
than that of his son and Lucia in the third. Cato receives the news
of his son's death, not only with dry eyes, but with a sort of
satisfaction; and in the same page sheds tears for the calamity of
his country, and does the same thing in the next page upon the bare
apprehension of the danger of his friends. Now, since the love of one's
country is the love of one's countrymen, as I have shown upon another
occasion, I desire to ask these questions:--Of all our countrymen, which
do we love most, those whom we know, or those whom we know not? And
of those whom we know, which do we cherish most, our friends or our
enemies? And of our friends, which are the dearest to us, those who are
related to us, or those who are not? And of all our relations, for which
have we most tenderness, for those who are near to us, or for those
who are remote? And of our near relations, which are the nearest, and
consequently the dearest to us, our offspring, or others? Our offspring,
most certainly; as Nature, or in other words Providence, has wisely
contrived for the preservation of mankind. Now, does it not follow,
from what has been said, that for a man to receive the news of his son's
death with dry eyes, and to weep at the same time for the calamities of
his country, is a wretched affectation and a miserable inconsistency?
Is not that, in plain English, to receive with dry eyes the news of the
deaths of those for whose sake our country is a name so dear to us, and
at the same time to shed tears for those for whose sakes our country is
not a name so dear to us?"

But this formidable assailant is less resistible when he attacks the
probability of the action and the reasonableness of the plan. Every
critical reader must remark that Addison has, with a scrupulosity almost
unexampled on the English stage, confined hi