view of the passions as I wished. Those passions which are of a permanent nature, are the proper subjects of this work: such, I mean, as are capable of taking up their abode in the mind, and of gaining a strong ascendancy over it during a term of some length; I have therefore, in all these plays given myself greater scope in point of time, than is usual with dramatic writers. But compared with ambition, perhaps all other passions may be considered as of a transient nature. They are capable of being gratified; and, when they are gratified, they become extinct, or subside and shade themselves off (if I may be allowed the expression) into other passions and affections. Ambition alone acquires strength from gratification, and after having gained one object still sees another rise before it, to which it as eagerly pushes on; and the dominion which it usurps over the mind is capable of enduring from youth to extreme age. To give a full view, therefore, of this passion, it was necessary to show the subject of it in many different situations, and passing through a considerable course of events; had I attempted to do this within the ordinary limits of one play, that play must have been so entirely devoted to this single object, as to have been left bare of every other interest or attraction. These are my reasons for making so large a demand on the patience of my reader in favour of this passion, and if I am pardoned in this instance, there is little danger of my offending again in the same manner.
