I.

PART of their attachments; but the gaiety of Ovid, and the gallantry of Horace, are always agreeable.

But though we feel no proper fympathy with an attachment of this kind, though we never approach even in imagination towards conceiving a paffion for that particular person, yet as we either have conceived, or may be difpofed to conceive, paffions of the fame kind, we readily enter into thofe high hopes of happiness which are propofed from its gratification, as well as into that exquifite diftrefs which is feared from its disappointment. It interefts us not as a paffion, but as a fituation that gives occafion to other paffions which intereft us; to hope, to fear, and to distress of every kind: in the same manner as in a defcription of a fea voyage, it is not the hunger which interefts us, but the diftrefs which that hunger occafions. Though we do not properly enter into the attachment of the lover, we readily go along with those expectations of romantic happiness which he derives from it. We feel how natural it is for the mind, in a certain fituation, relaxed with indolence, and fatigued with the violence of defire, to long for ferenity and quiet, to hope to find them in the gratification of that paffion which distracts it, and to frame to itself the idea of that life of paftoral tranquillity and retirement which the elegant, the tender, and the paffionate Tibullus takes fo much pleasure in defcribing; a life like what the poets describe in the Fortunate Islands, a life of friendship, liberty, and repofe;

II.

repofe; free from labour, and from care, and from s ECT. all the turbulent paffions which attend them. Even scenes of this kind intereft us moft, when they are painted rather as what is hoped, than as what is enjoyed. The groffnefs of that paffion, which mixes with, and is, perhaps, the foundation of love, disappears when its gratification is far off and at a distance; but renders the whole offenfive, when defcribed as what is immedi ately poffeffed. The happy paffion, upon this account, interefts us much lefs than the fearful and the melancholy. We tremble for whatever can disappoint fuch natural and agreeable hopes : and thus enter into all the anxiety, and concern, and distress of the lover.

Hence it is, that, in fome modern tragedies and romances, this paffion appears fo wonderfully interefting. It is not fo much the love of Caftalio and Monimia which attaches us in the Orphan, as the diftrefs which that love occafions. The author who fhould introduce two lovers, in a fcene of perfect fecurity, expreffing their mutual foodness for one another, would excite laughter, and not fympathy. If a scene of this kind is ever admitted into a tragedy, it is always, in some measure, improper, and is endured, not from any sympathy with the paffion that is expreffed in it, but from concern for the dangers and difficulties with which the audience forefee that its gratification is likely to be attended.

The referve which the laws of fociety impofe upon the fair fex, with regard to this weaknefs, renders it more peculiarly distressful in them,

I.

Her fear, her

PAR T and, upon that very account, more deeply inte refting. We are charmed with the love of Phædra, as it is expreffed in the French tragedy of that name, notwithstanding all the extravagance and guilt which attend it. That very extravagance and guilt may be faid, in fome measure, to recommend it to us. fhame, her remorse, her horror, her despair, become thereby more natural and interesting. All the fecondary paffions, if I may be allowed to call them fo, which arife from the fituation of love, become neceffarily more furious and violent; and it is with thefe fecondary paffions only that we can properly be said to fympathize.

Of all the paffions, however, which are fo extravagantly difproportioned to the value of their objects, love is the only one that appears, even to the weakest minds, to have any thing in it that is either graceful or agreeable. In itself, firft of all, though it may be ridiculous, it is not naturally odious; and though its confequences are often fatal and dreadful, its intentions are feldom mifchievous. And then, though there is little propriety in the paffion itself, there is a good deal in fome of thofe which always accompany it. There is in love a strong mixture of humanity, generofity, kindness, friendship, efteem; paffions with which, of all others, for reasons which shall be explained immediately, we have the greatest propenfity to fympathize, even notwithstanding we are fenfible that they are, in fome meafure, exceffive. The fympathy which we feel with them, renders the paffion

II.

which they accompany lefs difagreeable, and SECT. fupports it in our imagination, notwithstanding all the vices which commonly go along with it; though in the one fex it neceffarily leads to the laft ruin and infamy; and though in the other, where it is apprehended to be leaft fatal, it is almost always attended with an incapacity for labour, a neglect of duty, a contempt of fame, and even of common reputation. Notwithstanding all this, the degree of fenfibility and generofity with which it is fuppofed to be accompanied, renders it to many the object of vanity; and they are fond of appearing capable of feeling what would do them no honour if they had really felt it.

It is for a reafon of the fame kind, that a certain referve is neceffary when we talk of our own friends, our own ftudies, our own profeffions. All these are objects which we cannot expect fhould intereft our companions in the fame degree in which they intereft us. And it is for want of this reserve, that the one half of mankind make bad company to the other. A philofopher is company to a philofopher only; the member of a club, to his own little knot of companions.

VOL. I.

E

CHAP.

PART
I.

CHAP. III.

Of the unfocial Paffions.

HERE is another fet of paffions, which,

TH

though derived from the imagination, yet before we can enter into them, or regard them as graceful or becoming, must always be brought down to a pitch much lower than that to which undifciplined nature would raise them. These are, hatred and refentment, with all their dif ferent modifications. With regard to all fuch paffions, our fympathy is divided between the person who feels them, and the person who is the object of them. The interefts of these two are directly oppofite. What our fympathy with the perfon who feels them would prompt us to wish for, our fellow-feeling with the other would lead us to fear. As they are both men, we are concerned for both, and our fear for what the one may fuffer, damps our refentment for what the other has fuffered. Our fympathy, therefore, with the man who has received the provocation, neceffarily falls fhort of the paffion which naturally animates him, not only upon account of thofe general caufes which render all fympathetic paffions inferior to the original ones, but upon account of that particular caufe which is peculiar to itself, our oppofite fympathy with another perfon. Before refentment, therefore, can become graceful and agreeable, it must be

more