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paffions, or at leaft puts us in the mood which difpofes us to conceive them. But when it imitates the notes of anger, it infpires us with fear. Joy, grief, love, admiration, devotion, are all of them paffions which are naturally mufical. Their natural tones are all soft, clear, and melodious; and they naturally exprefs themselves in periods which are diftinguished by regular paufes, and which upon that account are easily adapted to the regular returns of the correspondent airs of a tune. The voice of anger, on the contrary, and of all the paffions which are akin to it, is harsh and difcordant. Its periods too are all irregular, fometimes very long, and fometimes very fhort, and diftinguifhed by no regular paufes. It is with difficulty, therefore, that mufic can imitate any of thofe paflions; and the mufic which does imitate them is not the most agreeable. A whole entertainment may confift, without any impropriety, of the imitation of the focial and agreeable paffions. It would be a flrange entertainment which consisted altogether of the imitations of hatred and refent

ment.

If thofe paffions are difagreeable to the spectator, they are not lefs fo to the perfon who feels them. Hatred and anger are the greatest poifon to the happiness of a good mind. There is, in the very feeling of thofe paffions, fomething harth, jarring, and convulsive, fomething that tears and diftracts the breaft, and is altogether deftructive of that compofure and tranquillity of mind which is fo neceffary to happiness, and which is beft promoted by

the contrary paffions of gratitude and love. It is not the value of what they lose by the perfidy and ingratitude of those they live with, which the generous and humane are most apt to regret. Whatever they may have loft, they can generally be very happy without it. What moft difturbs them is the idea of perfidy and ingratitude exercifed towards themfelves; and the difcordant and difagreeable paffions which this excites, conftitute, in their own opinion, the chief part of the injury which they fuffer.

How many things are requifite to render the gra tification and refentment completely agreeable, and to make the fpectator thoroughly fympathize with our revenge? The provocation must firft of all be fuch that we fhould become contemptible, and be expofed to perpetual infults, if we did not, in fome measure, refent it. Smaller offences are always better neglected; nor is there any thing more despicable than that froward and captious humor which takes fire upon every flight occafion of quarrel. We fhould refent more from a fenfe of the propriety of refentment, from a fenfe that mankind expect and require it of us, than because we feel in ourselves the furies of that difagreeable paffion. There is no paífion, of which the human mind is capable, concerning whofe juftness we ought to be fo doubtful, concerning whofe indulgence we ought fo carefully to confult our natural sense of propriety, or fo diligently to confider what will be the fentiments of the cool and impartial spectator. Magnanimity, or a regard to maintain our

own rank and dignity in fociety, is the only motive which can ennoble the expreflions of this disagreeable pallion. This motive muft characterize our whole ftyle and deportment. These must be plain, open, and direct; determined without pofitiveness, and elevated without infolence; not only free from petulance and low fcurrility, but generous,candid, and full of all proper regards, even for the person who has offended us. It muft appear, in fhort, from our whole manner, without our laboring affectedly to exprefs it, that paffion has not extinguifhed our humanity; and that if we yield to the dictates of revenge, it is with reluctance, from neceffity, and in confequence of great and repeated provocations. When refentment is guarded and qualified in this manner, it may be admitted to be even generous and noble.

CHAP. IV.

Of the focial Paffions.

As it is a divided fympathy which renders the whole set of paffions juft now mentioned, upon moft occafions, fo ungraceful and disagreeable; fo there is another fet oppofite to these, which a redoubled fympathy renders almost always peculiarly agreeable and becoming. Generofity, humanity, kindness, compaffion, mutual friendship and esteem, all the focial and benevolent affections, when expreffed in the countenance or behaviour, even

towards those who are not peculiarly connected with ourselves, please the indifferent spectator upon almost every occafion. His fympathy with the perfon who feels thofe 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, whofe emotions are employed about the fame object. We have always, therefore, the ftrongeft difpofition to fympathize with the benevolent affections. They appear in every respect agreeable to us. We enter into the fatisfaction both of the person who feels them, and of the perfon 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 consciousness 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 deteftable as that of one who takes pleasure to fow diffenfion among friends, and to turn their most tender love into mortal hatred? Yet wherein does the atrocity of this so 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 other's affections, from which both derived fo much fatisfaction; it is in difturbing 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 'itfelf, agreeable to the perfon who feels it. It fooths and compcfes the breaft, feems to favor the vital motions, and to promote the healthful ftate of the human conflitution; and it is rendered ftill more delightful by the confcioufnefs 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 fympathy, with this mutual regard, makes them agreeable to every other perfon. With what pleafure 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 fondnefs, mutual raillery and mutual kindness,, fhow that no oppofition of intereft divides the brothers, nor any rivalfhip of favor fets the fifters at variance, and where every thing prefents us with the idea of peace, cheerfulness, harmony, and contentment? On the contrary, how uneafy are we made when we go into a house in which jarring contention fets one half of those who dwell in it against the other;

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