_Mrs. G._ I cannot except even these; for they acknowledge it an evil, though they contend it exists by divine ordination, just as they assert Original Sin to be the offspring of Eternal Decrees; but they no more convince the Slaveholder, that he loves his bondman as himself, than they convict him of the guilt of Adam's transgression. _Mr. F._ What do you say to Webster's great speech on the compromise measure? _Mrs. G._ (_Pleasantly._) Is not the moral view of a question, about as far as a woman's instinct ought to go? _Mr. F._ Oh, no; go on, your strictures are quite amusing. _Mrs. G._ Well, then, since _we_ have taken the position of a reviewer, _we_ must confess that the last effort of the great Daniel appears to us to be _on an Act of Congress_. _Mr. D._ And _at_ the Presidential chair. _Mrs. G._ (_Continuing._) It did not touch the merits of slavery at all. Webster knew the feelings of the constituents too well to attempt such a task. He therefore skilfully diverted their attention from his real issue, to the glorious Union, and its danger from agitators, and he thus carried with him the sympathies of many honest haters of oppression. _Mr. F._ Well, sister, I do not know but you will prove that there is not an advocate for slavery on the face of the earth. _Mrs. G._ Only such advocates as there is for robbery and war. Those who find it for their interest to practice these crimes condemn them in the abstract, or at most only apologize for them, as necessary and expedient, under peculiar circumstances. _Frank._ (_Laughing._) Why, mother, I shall certainly subscribe for your "North American Review," particularly if you fill the literary department as ably as you have the moral and political, to test which, let me propound a question? If the reward of the good be the charm of fiction, how do you account for the pleasure derived from tragedy, where the good are overwhelmed with the evil? _Mrs. G._ (_Smiling._) With great diffidence we reply to the query of our learned friend. The force of tragedy consists in its depicting evil so ruinous as to involve even the innocent in the catastrophe; the pleasure is derived, we think, from the _failure_ of the mischievous design, and the merited retribution which falls upon the head of the plotters. In Romeo, "a scourge is laid upon the hate of the Montagues and Capulets, by which all are punished;" Hamlet's wicked uncle is justly served, drinking the poison tempered by himself; and Iago pulls down ruin upon himself no less than upon Cassio. _Frank._ (_Bowing playfully_.) Your review meets my entire approbation, inasmuch as it confirms my doctrine, that theatres always give their verdict in favor of virtue. _Mr. D._ "Casting out devils through Beelzebub."