ABSTRACT
Plays are designed, by the joint powers of precept and example, to have a good influence on the lives of men. Enquiries into the conduct of fable in the drama were useless to this end. The regular or irregular disposition of parts in a play is an artificial praise or blame, that can contribute nothing to the improvement or depravation of the mind; for the cause of morality is promoted only when, by a catastrophe resulting from principles natural to the agents who produce it, we are taught to love virtue and abhor vice.
