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Poets, moreover, dwell on human passions.

And with this point about the passions, we encounter Plato's dualism.

The same sort of thinking plays so large a part in both Babbitt and More, that we must examine it in some detail.

Plato feels that man has two competing aspects, his rational faculty and his irrational.

We can be virtuous only if we control our lower natures, the passions in this case, and strengthen our rational side ; ;

and poetry, with all its emphasis on the passions, encourages the audience to give way to emotion.

For this reason, then, poetry tends to weaken the power of control, the reason, because it tempts one to indulge his passions, and even the best of men, he maintains, may be corrupted by this subtle influence.