moved from abfolute perfection, feems to deferve applause; and whatever falls fhort of it, to deferve blame.

It is in the fame manner that we judge of the productions of all arts which addrefs themselves to the imagination. When a critic examines the work of any of the great mafters for poetry or painting, he may fometimes examine it by an idea of perfection, in his own mind, which neither that nor any other human work will ever come up to; and as long as he compares it with this ftandard, he can fee nothing in it but faults and imperfections. But when he come to confider the rank which it ought to hold among other works of the fame kind, he neceffarily compares it with a very different standard, the common degree of excellence which is ufually attained in this particular art; and when he judges of it by this new measure, it may often appear to deferve the highest applaufe, upon account of its approaching much nearer to perfection than the greater part of those works which can be brought into competition with it.

SECTION.

SECTION II.

Of the degrees of the different paffions which are confiftent with propriety.

INTRODUCTION.

THE propriety of every paffion excited by ob

jects peculiarly related to ourfelves, the pitch which the fpectator can go along with, muft lie, it is evident, in certain mediocrity. If the paflion is too high, or if it is too low, he cannot enter into it. Grief and refentment for private misfortunes and injuries may easily, for example, be too high, and in the greater part of mankind they are fo. They may likewife, though this more rarely happens, be too low: We denominate the excess, weakness and fury and we call the defect, ftupidity, infenfibility, and want of spirit. We can enter into neither of them, but are astonished and confounded to fee them:

This mediocrity, however, in which the point of propriety confifts, is different in different paffions. It is high in fome, and low in others. There are fome paffions which it is indecent to exprefs very ftrongly, even upon thofe occafions, in which it is acknowledged

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acknowledged that we cannot avoid feeling them in the highest degree. And there are others of which the strongest expreffions are upon many occafions extremely graceful, even though the paffions themselves do not, perhaps, arife fo neceffarily. The first are those paffions with which, for certain reasons, there is little or no fympathy: the fecond are those with which, for other reasons, there is the greateft. And if we confider all the different paffions of human nature, we fhall find that they are regarded as decent, or indecent, juft in proportion as mankind are more or less difpofed to fympathize with them.

CHAP. I.

Of the paffions which take their origin from the body.

IT is indecent to express any strong degree of

those paffions which arife from a certain fituation or difpofition of the body; because the company, not being in the fame difpofition, cannot be expected to fympathize with them. Violent hunger, for example, though upon many occafions not only natural, but unavoidable, is always indecent, and to eat voraciously is univerfally regarded as a piece of ill manners. There is, however, fome degree of fympathy, even with hunger. It is agreeable to fee our companions eat with a good appetite, and alf expreffions

expreffions of loathing are offenfive. The difpofition of body which is habitual to a man in health, makes his ftomach eafily keep time, if I may be allowed fo coarfe an expreffion, with the one, and not with the other. We can fympathize with the diftrefs which exceffive hunger occafions when we read the defcription of it in the journal of a fiege, or of a fea voyage. We imagine ourfelves in the fituation of the fufferers, and thence readily conceive the grief, the fear and confternation, which muft neceffarily distract them. We feel, ourfelyes, fome degree of thofe paffions, and therefore fympathize with them: but as we do not grow hungry by reading the defcription, we cannot properly, even in this cafe, be faid to fympathize with their hunger.

It is the fame cafe with the paffion by which Nature unites the two fexes. Though naturally the moft furious of all paffions, all ftrong expreffions of it are upon every occafion indecent, even between perfons in whom its moft complete indulgence is ac knowledged by all laws, both human and divine, to be perfectly innocent. There feems, however, to be fome degree of fympathy even with this paffion. To talk to a woman as we should to a man is improper: it is expected that their company fhould infpire us with more gaiety, more pleafantry, and more attention; and an intire infenfibility to the fair fex, renders a man contemptible in fome measure even to the men.

Such is our averfion for all the appetites which take their origin from the body: all ftrong expreffions of them are loathfome and difagreeable. Ac

cording to fome antient philofophers, these are the paffions which we fhare in common with the brutes, and which having no connexion with the characteriftical qualities of human nature, are upon that account beneath its dignity. But there are many other paffions which we fhare in common with the brutes, fuch as refentment, natural affection, even gratitude, which do not, upon that account, appear to be fo brutal. The true caufe of the peculiar difguft which we conceive for the appetites of the body when we fee them in other men, is that we cannot enter into them. To the perfon himself who feels them, as foon as they are gratified, the object that excited them ceafes to be agreeable: even its prefence ofter becomes offenfive to him, he looks round to no purpose for the charm which transported him the moment before, and he can' now as little enter into his own paffion as another perfon. When we have dined, we order the co vers to be removed; and we fhould treat in the fame manner the objects of the moft ardent and paffionate defires, if they were the objects of no other paffions but thofe which take their origin from the body.

In the command of thofe appetites of the body. confifts that virtue which is properly called tempe→ rance. To reftrain them within thofe bounds, which regard to health and fortune prefcribes, is the part of prudence. But to confine them within those limits, which grace, which propriety, which delicacy, and modefty, require, is the office of temperance.

2. It is for the fame reafon that to cry out with bodily pain, how intolerable foever, appears always unmanly