The case is the same with the idea, as with the passion it occasions.

There is no passion of the human mind but what may arise from poetry; though at the same time the feelings of the passions are very different when excited by poetical fictions, from what they are when they are from belief and reality.

A passion, which is disagreeable in real life, may afford the highest entertainment 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 difference in the passions is a clear proof of a like difference in those ideas, from which the passions are derived.