(1) We sometimes see a whole playhouse in tears. But the audience at a
theatre, though a public assembly, are not a public body. They are not
Incorporated into a framework of exclusive, narrow-minded interests
of their own. Each individual looks out of his own insignificance at
a scene, _ideal_ perhaps, and foreign to himself, but true to nature;
friends, strangers, meet on the common ground of humanity, and the
tears that spring from their breasts are those which 'sacred pity has
engendered.' They are a mixed multitude melted into sympathy by remote,
imaginary events, not a combination cemented by petty views, and sordid,
selfish prejudices.