Page:An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff (1777).djvu/24

Rh each, and not in its nature transferable: It is an imperfect sort of instinct, and proportionably dumb.—We might indeed, if we chose it, candidly confess to one another, that we are greatly swayed by these feelings, and are by no means so rational in all points as we could wish; but this would be a betraying of the interests of that high faculty, the Understanding, which we so value ourselves upon, and which we more peculiarly call our own. This, we think, must not be; and so we huddle up the matter, concealing it as much as possible, both from ourselves and others. In Books indeed, wherein character, motive, and action, are all alike subjected to the Understanding, it is generally a very clear case; and we make decisions compounded of them all: And thus we are willing to approve of Candide, tho’ he kills my Lord the Inquisitor, and runs thro’ the body the Baron of Thunder-ten-tronchk the son of his patron, and the brother of his beloved Cunégonde: But in real life, I believe, my Lords the Judges would be apt to inform the