rewarded, yet, since wickedness often prospers in real life, the
poet is certainly at liberty to give it prosperity on the stage.
For if poetry 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