BOOK I PART III
at the same time the feelings of the passions
are very different when excited by poetical fic-
tions, from what they are when they are from
belief and reality. A passion, which is disagree-
able in real life, may afford the highest enter-
tainment in a tragedy, or epic poem. In the
latter case, it lies not with that weight upon
us: It feels less firm and solid: And has no
other than the agreeable effect of exciting the
spirits, and rouzing the attention. The differ-
ence in the passions is a clear proof of a like
difference in those ideas, from which the pas-
sions are derived. Where the vivacity arises
from a customary conjunction with a present
impression; though the imagination may not,
in appearance, be so much moved; yet there
is always something more forcible and real in
its actions, than in the fervors of poetry and
eloquence. The force of our mental actions in