LECTURE XXII. CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE HOUGH in yesterday's Paper we confidered LECT. how every thing that is great, new, or beautiful, XXII. is apt to affect the imagination with pleasure, we must own, that it is impoffible for us to affign the neceffary caufe of this pleasure, because we know neither the nature of an idea, nor the fubftance of a human foul, which might help us to difcover the conformity or difagreeableness of the one to the other; and, therefore, for want of fuch a light, all that we can do in fpeculations of this kind, is, to reflect on thofe operations of the foul that are most agreeable, and to range, under their proper heads, what is pleafing or difpleafing to the mind, without being able to trace out the feveral neceffary and efficient caufes from whence the pleasure or difpleafure arifes. THIS Sentence, confidered as an introductory one, must be acknowledged to be very faulty. An introductory Sentence fhould never contain any thing that can in any degree fatigue or puzzle the reader. When an Author is entering on a new branch XXII. LECT. branch of his fubject, informing us of what he has done, and what he purposes farther to do, we naturally expect that he should express himself in the fimpleft and most perfpicuous manner poffible. But the Sentence now before us is crowded and indiftinct; containing three feparate propofitions, which, as I fhall afterwards fhow, required feparate Sentences to have unfolded them. Mr. Addifon's chief excellency, as a writer, lay in defcribing and painting. There he is great; but in methodising and reasoning, he is not fo eminent. As, befides the general fault of prolixity and indiftinctnefs, this Sentence contains feveral inaccuracies, I will be obliged to enter into a minute difcuffion of its ftructure and parts; a difcuffion, which to many readers will appear tedious, and which therefore they will naturally pass over; but which, to those who are studying compofition, I hope may prove of fome benefit. Though in yesterday's Paper we confidered-The import of though is, notwithstanding that. When it appears in the beginning of a Sentence, its relative generally is yet; and it is employed to warn us, after we have been informed of fome truth, that we are not to infer from it fome other thing which we might perhaps have expected to follow; as, Though virtue be the only road to happiness, yet it does not permit the unlimited gratification of our defires." Now te 4. " XXII. it is plain, that there was no fuch oppofi- LECT. tion between the subject of yesterday's Paper, and what the Author is now going to fay, between his afferting a fact, and his not being able to affign the cause of that fact, as rendered the ufe of this adverfative particle though, either neceffary or proper in the introduction.--We confidered how every thing that is great, new, or beautiful, is apt to affect the imagination with pleasure. The adverb bow fignifies, either the means by which, or the manner in which, fomething is done. But, in truth, neither one nor other of these had been confidered by our Author. He had illuftrated the fact alone, that they do affect the imagination with pleasure; and, with refpect to the quomodo, or the how, he is fo far from having confidered it, that he is juft now going to fhow that it cannot be explained, and that we muft reft contented with the knowledge of the fact alone, and of its purpose or final caufe.---We must own, that it is impoffible for us to affign the necessary caufe (he means, what is more commonly called the efficient caufe) of this pleasure, because we know neither the nature of an idea, nor the Jubftance of a human foul.---The fubftance of a human foul is certainly a very uncouth expreffion, and there appears no reason why he fhould have varied from the word nature, which would have equally applied to idea and to foul. LECT. Which might help us, our Author proceeds, to difcover the conformity or difagreedbleness of the one to the other.---The which, at the beginning of this member of the period, is furely ungrammatical, as it is a relative, without any antecedent in all the Sentence, It refers, by the conftruction, to the nature of an idea, or the fubftance of a human foul; but this is by no means the reference which the Author intended. His meaning is, that our knowing the nature of an idea, and the fubftance of a human foul, might help us to discover the conformity or difagreeableness of the one to the other: and therefore the fyntax abfolutely required the word knowledge to have been inferted as the antecedent to which. I have before remarked, and the remark deserves to be repeated, that nothing is a more certain fign of carelefs compofition than to make fuch relatives as which, not refer to any precife expreffion, but carry a loofe and vague relation to the general strain of what had gone before. When our fentences run into this form, we may be affured there is fomething in the conftruction of them that requires alteration. The phrafe of difcovering the conformity or difagreeableness of the one to the other is likewife exceptionable; for disagreeableness neither forms a proper contraft to the other word, confor mity, nor expreffes what the author meant here (as far as any meaning can be gathered from his words), that is, a certain unfuitableness or want of conformity to the na ture XXII. ture of the foul, To fay the truth, this LECT. member of the fentence had much better have been omitted altogether. The confor wity or disagreeableness of an idea to the fubStance of a human foul, is a phrafe which conveys to the mind no diftinct nor intelligent conception whatever. The author had before given a fufficient reafon for his not affigning the efficient caufe of thofe pleasures of the imagination, because we neither know the nature of our own ideas nor of the foul; and this farther difcuffion about the conformity or difagreeablenefs of the nature of the one, to the fubftance of the other, affords no clear nor useful illuftration, And therefore, the fentence goes on, for want of fuch a light, all that we can do in fpeculations of this kind, is to reflect on those operations of the foul that are most agreeable, and to range under their proper heads what is pleafing or difpleafing to the mind. -The two expreffions in the beginning of this member, therefore, and for want of fuch a light, evidently refer to the fame thing, and are quite fynonymous. One or other of them, therefore, had better have been omitted, Inftead of to range under their proper heads, the language would have been fmoother, if their had been left out;without being able to trace out the feveral neceffary and efficient caufes from whence the pleasure or difpleafure arifes. The expreffion, from whence, though feemingly |