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cafions, but it conftantly prevents us from fympathizing with it in others when excited by the like frivolous causes: for our fympathetic paffions are always lefs irrefiftible than our original ones. There is, befides, a malice in mankind, which not only prevents all fympathy with little uneafineffes, but renders them in fome measure diverting. Hence the delight which we all take in raillery, and in the fmall vexation which we observe in our companion, when he is pushed, and urged, and teafed upon all fides. Men of the most ordinary goodbreeding diffemble the pain which any little incident may give them; and those who are more thoroughly formed to fociety, turn, of their own accord, all fuch incidents into raillery, as they know their companions will do for them. The habit which a man, who lives in the world, has acquired of confidering how every thing that concerns himfelf will appear to others, makes those frivolous calamities turn up in the fame ridiculous light to him, in which he knows they will certainly be confidered by them.

Our fympathy, on the contrary, with deep diftress, is very strong and very fincere. It is unneceffary to give an inftance. We weep even at the feigned reprefentation of a tragedy. If you labour, therefore, under any fignal calamity, if by fome extraordinary misfortune you are fallen into poverty, into diseases, into difgrace and disappointment; even though your own fault may have been, in part, the occafion, yet you may generally depend upon the fincereft fympathy of all your friends, and, as far as intereft and honour will per

mit,

But if your

mit, upon their kindeft affistance too. misfortune is not of this dreadful kind, if you have only been a little baulked in your ambition, if you have only been jilted by your mistress, or are only hen-pecked by your wife, lay your account with the raillery of all your acquaintance,

SECTION

SECTION III.

Of the effects of profperity and adverfity upon the judgment of mankind with regard to the propriety of action; and why it is more easy to obtain their approbation in the one state than in the other.

CHAP. I.

That though our Sympathy with forrow is generally a more lively fenfation than our Sympathy with joy, it commonly falls much more fport of the violence of what is naturally felt by the perfon principally concerned,

OUR fympathy with forrow, though not more

real, has been more taken notice of than our fympathy with joy. The word fympathy, in its most proper and primitive fignification, denotes our fellowfeeling with the sufferings, not that with the enjoyments, of others. A late ingenious and fubtile philofopher thought it neceffary to prove, by arguments, that we had a real fympathy with joy, and that congratulation was a principle of human nature. Nobody, I believe, ever thought it neceffary to prove that compaffion was fuch,

First of all, our sympathy with forrow is, in fome fenfe, more univerfal than that with joy. Though

forrow

forrow is exceffive, we may ftill have some fellowfeeling with it. What we feel does not, indeed, in this cafe, amount to that complete fympathy, to that perfect harmony and correspondence of fentiments which conftitutes approbation. We do not weep, and exclaim, and lament, with the fufferer. We are fenfible, on the contrary, of his weakness, and of the extravagance of his paffion, and yet often feel a very fenfible concern upon his account. But if we do not entirely enter into, and go along with, the joy of another, we have no fort of regard or fellow-feeling for it. The man who skips and dances about with that intemperate and fenfeless joy which we cannot accompany him in, is the object of our contempt and indignation.

Pain befides, whether of mind or body, is a more pungent fenfation than pleasure, and our fympathy with pain, though it falls greatly fhort of what is naturally felt by the fufferer, is generally a more lively and distinct perception than our fympathy with pleasure, though this laft often approaches more nearly, as I fhall fhow immediately, to the natural vivacity of the original paffion.

Over and above all this, we often ftruggle to keep down our fympathy with the forrow of others. Whenever we are not under the obfervation of the fufferer, we endeavour, for our own fake, to fuppress it as much as we can, and we are not always fuccefsful. The oppofition which we make to it, and the reluctance with which we yield to it, neceffarily obligé us to take more particular notice of it. But we never have occafion to make this oppofition to our fympathy with joy. If there is any envy in the cafe,

F

we never feel the leaft propenfity towards it; and if there is none, we give way to it without any reluctance. On the contrary, as we are always afhamed of our own envy, we often pretend, and fometimes really wish to fympathize with the joy of others, when by that difagreeable fentiment we are disqualified from doing fo. We are glad, we say, on account of our neighbour's good fortune, when in our hearts, perhaps, we are really forry. We often feel a fympathy with forrow when we wish to be rid of it; and we often mifs that with joy when we would be glad to have it. The obvious obfervation, therefore, which it naturally falls in our way to make, is that our propenfity to fympathize with forrow must be very strong, and our inclination to fympathize with joy very weak.

Notwithstanding this prejudice, however, I will venture to affirm, that, when there is no envy in the cafe, our propensity to fympathize with joy is much stronger than our propenfity to fympathize with forrow; and that our fellow-feeling for the agreeable emotion approaches much more nearly to the vivacity of what is naturally felt by the perfons principally concerned, than that which we conceive for the painful one.

We have fome indulgence for that exceffive grief which we cannot entirely go along with. We know what a prodigious effort is requifite before the fufferer can bring down his emotions to compleat harmony and concord with thofe of the fpectator. Though he fails, therefore, we eafily pardon him. But we have no fuch indulgence for the intemperance of joy; because we are not confcious that any fuch vaft

effort