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ence. These continue in poffeffion of the heart till the mind repofes and recovers vigour: And, if the conviction of injury ftill remains, and if our refentment seems justified by every amiable principle, by reafon and the fentiments of mankind, it will return with power and authority. Should any unintended incident awaken our fenfibility, and difpofe us to a state of mind favourable to the influences and operations of ardent and impetuous paffions, our refentment will revifit us at that precife period, and turn in its favour, and avail itself of every other fentiment and affection. The mind of Hamlet, weary and exhausted by violent agitation, continues doubtful and undecided, till his fenfibility, excited by a theatrical exhibition, reftores to their authority his indignation and defire of vengeance. Still, however, his moral principles, the fupreme and governing powers of his conftitution, conducting thofe paffions which

they

they seem to justify and excite, determine him again to examine his evidence, or endeavour, by additional circumstances, to have it strengthened.

Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monftrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of paffion,
Could force his foul fo to its own conceit,
That, from her working, all his vifage wan'd;
Tears in his eyes, diftraction in's afpect,

A broken voice, and his whole function fuiting,
With forms, to his conceit ? and all for nothing?
For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for paffion,
That I have? He would drown the ftage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid fpeech,
Make mad the guilty, and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze, indeed,
The very faculty of ears and eyes.

Yet, I fay, nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whofe property, and moft dear life,
A damn'd defeat was made.-

I have heard,

That guilty creatures, fitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene

Been

Been ftruck fo to the foul, that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions.
I'll have thefe players

Play fomething like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle. I'll obferve his looks;

I'll tent him to the

I know my courfe.

quick; if he but blench,

The spirit, that I have feen,

May be the devil; and the devil hath power
To affume a pleafing fhape; yea, and, perhaps,
Out of my weakness, and my melancholy,
(As he is very potent with fuch spirits)
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
More relative than this.

Refolving to carry his project into execution, he conducts himself with his ufual candour and understanding. In an affair fo difficult and fo important, he does not confide in his own observations; but, in order to have his judgement rectified, in cafe of error, and to have his refentment tempered, in cafe of violence, he imparts his intention to Horatio. Hamlet,

The expectancy and rofe of the fair state,
The glass of fashion, and the mould of form,

knew

knew the fanctity of friendship, its uses, and its importance. His friend was not merely the partner of his amufements, to be his affociate in his pleasures, and to cherish his vanity by adulation: He was a friend to counsel and affist him in doubtful emergencies, to improve his heart, and correct his judgement. The qualities that distinguish Horatio, and render him worthy of the efteem of Hamlet, are not affluence, nor pageantry, nor gay accomplishments, nor vivacity, nor even wit, and uncommon genius, too often allied to an impetuous temper: He is diftinguifhed by that equanimity and independence of foul which arife from governed and corrected paffions, from a found and difcerning judgement,

Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man, As e'er my converfation cop'd withal, Hor. Oh my dear Lord

Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter:

For what advancement may I hope from thee,

That no revenue haft, but thy good spirits,

Το

To feed and cloath thee?

Doft thou hear?

Since my dear foul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath feal'd thee for herself: for thou haft been
As one, in fuffering all, that suffers nothing;
A man, that fortune's buffets and rewards
Haft ta'en with equal thanks *.

Give me that man,

That is not paffion's flave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.

Hamlet, by means of a dramatic exhibition, into which he had introduced the representation of his father's murder, having affured himself of the guilt of Claudius by his emotions, has no longer any doubt concerning the propriety of his refentment. If we are eagerly interested in any purfuit, whether of an end, or of a mean by which fome end may be accomplifhed, our fuccefs is ever attended with joy, even when the end we are pursuing is in itself a foundation of forrow. It fre

quently

* In quem manca ruit femper fortuna. Hor.

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