and disagreeable; fo there is another fet oppofite to thefe, which a redoubled fympathy renders almost always peculiarly agreeable and becoming. Generofity, humanity, kindnefs, compaffion, mutual friendship and ef teem, all the focial and benevolent affections, when expreffed in the countenance or behaviour, even towards those who are peculiarly connected with ourselves, please the indifferent spectator upon almoft every occafion. His fympathy with the person who feels those paffions, exactly coincides with his concern for the person who is the object of them. The intereft, which, as a man, he is obliged to take in the happiness of this laft, enlivens his fellow-feeling with the fentiments of the other, whose emotions are employed about the fame object. We have always, therefore, the strongest difpofition to fympathise with the benevolent affections. They appear in every respect agreeable to us. We enter into

the fatisfaction both of the perfon who feels them, and of the person who is the object of them. For as to be the object of hatred and indignation gives more pain than all the evil which a brave man can fear from his enemies; fo there is a fatisfaction in the conscioufness of being beloved, which, to a perfon of delicacy and fenfibility, is of more importance to happiness than all the advantage which he can expect to derive from it. What character is fo detestable as that of one who takes pleasure to fow diffention among friends, and to turn their most tender love into mortal hatred ?

Part I: hatred? Yet wherein does the atrocity of this fo much abhorred injury confift? Is it in depriving them of the frivolous good offices, which, had their friendship continued, they might have expected from one another? It is in depriving them of that friendship itself, in robbing them of each others affections, from which both derived fo much fatisfaction; it is in disturbing the harmony of their hearts, and putting an end to that happy commerce which had before fubfifted between them. Thefe affections, that harmony, this commerce, are felt, not only by the tender and the delicate, but by the rudeft vulgar of mankind, to be of more importance to happiness than all the little fervices which could be expected to flow from them.

The fentiment of love is, in itself, agreeable to the person who feels it. It fooths and composes the breast, seems to favour the vital motions, and to promote the healthful state of the human conftitution; and it is rendered ftill more delightful by the consciousness of the gratitude and fatisfaction which it muft excite in him who is the object of it. Their mutual regard renders them happy in one another, and sympathy, with this mutual regard, makes them agreeable to every other perfon. With what pleasure do we look upon a family, through the whole of which reign mutual love and efteem, where the parents and children are companions for one another, without any other difference than what is made by respectful affection on the one fide,

and kind indulgence on the other; where freedom and fondness, mutual raillery, and mutual kindness, fhow that no oppofition of interefts divides the brothers, nor any rivalship of favour fets the fifters at variance, and where every thing prefents us with the idea of peace, chearfulnefs, harmony, and contentment. On the contrary, how uneafy are we made when we go into a house in which jarring contention fet one half of those who dwell in it against the other; where amidst affected smoothnefs and complaifance, fufpicious looks and fudden ftarts of paffion betray the mutual jealoufies which burn within them, and which are every moment ready to burft out through all the reftraints which the prefence of the company imposes.

Thofe amiable paffions, even when they are acknowledged to be exceffive, are never regarded with averfion. There is fomething agreeable even in the weakness of friendship and humanity. The too tender mother, the too indulgent father, the too generous and affectionate friend, may fometimes, perhaps,. on account of the foftness of their natures, be looked upon with a fpecies of pity, in which, however, there is a mixture of love, but can never be regarded with hatred and averfion, nor even with contempt, unless by the most brutal and worthlefs of mankind. It is always with concern, with fympathy and kindness, that we blame them for the extravagance of their attachment. There is a helpleffnefs in the character of extreme hu

manity which more than any thing interests our pity. There is nothing in itself which renders it either ungraceful or disagreeable. We only regret that it is unfit for the world, because the world is unworthy of it, and because it must expose the perfon who is endowed with it as a prey to the perfidy and ingratitude of infinuating falfhood, and to a thousand pains and uneafineffes, which, of all men, he the least deserves to feel, and which generally too he is, of all men, the least capable of fupporting. It is quite otherwise with hatred and refentment. Too violent a propensity to thofe deteftable paffions, renders a person the object of universal dread and abhorrence, who, like a wild beast, ought, we think, to be hunted out of all civil fociety.

B'

CHA P. V.

Of the felfish paffions.

ESIDES thofe two oppofite fets of paffions, the focial and unfocial, there is another which holds a fort of middle place between them; is never either fo graceful as is fometimes the one fet, nor is ever fo odious as is fometimes the other. Grief and joy, when conceived upon account of our own private good or bad fortune, constitute this third fet of paffions. Even when exceffive, they are never so difagreeable as exceffive re

fentment,

fentment, because no oppofite fympathy can ever intereft us against them, and when most fuitable to their objects they are never fo agreeable as impartial humanity and juft benevolence; becaufe no double fympathy can ever intereft us for them. There is, however, this difference between grief and joy, that we are generally moft difpofed to fympathife with fmall joys and great forrows. The man, who by fome fudden revolution of fortune, is lifted up all at once into a condition of life, greatly above what he had formerly lived in, may be affured that the congratulations of his best friends are not all of them perfectly fincere. An upftart, though of the greatest merit, is generally difagreeable, and a fentiment of envy commonly prevents us from heartily fympathifing with his joy. If he has any judgment he is fenfible of this, and inftead of appearing to be elated with his good fortune, he endeavours, as much as he can, to fmother his joy, and keep down that elevation of mind with which his new circumftances naturally infpire him. He affects the fame plainnefs of drefs, and the fame modefty of behaviour, which became him in his former ftation. He redoubles his attention to his old friends, and endeavours more than ever to be humble, affiduous, and, complaifant. And this is the behaviour which in his fituation we moft approve of; becaufe we expect, it feems, that he fhould have more fympathy with our envy and averfion to his happiness, than we have with his happiness.