« 170. La civiltà ha posto in uso le fatiche dannose e
dismesso le utili alla sanità del corpo e delle facoltà umane.172. La musica imita il sentimento in persona. Paragonata
alla poesia ed all'architettura. Passo della in proposito.»
Ancient pain. Its great difference from the modern. Whether
poets and artists should or can fittingly treat ancient subject matters
where there is emphasis on the passions. Sensitivity was not proper to the
ancients; it is a natural effect of our modern circumstances, but it is not
innate in us: it is a remedy prepared by compassionate nature for our
present, although not natural, unhappiness. How unreasonable it is to accuse
ancient poets and writers of lacking feeling and to devalue the ancients
because they lacked it. They did not, however, lack other noble and sweet
passions, nor other great delights of the spirit which we lack. The
consolation of the ancients was not in misfortune itself, as it is in some
way for us.
76-79