rage underrates danger; and to the indolent the flightest obftacle appears unfurmountable.

This doctrine is of great use in logic; and of ftill greater use in criticifm, by ferving to explain feveral principles of the fine arts that will be unfolded in the courfe of this work. A few general obfervations fhall at prefent fuffice, leaving the fubject to be profecuted more particularly afterward when occafion offers.

There is no truth more univerfally known, than that tranquillity and fedatenefs are the proper ftate of mind for accurate perception and cool deliberation; and for that reafon, we never regard the opinion even of the wifeft man, when we difcover prejudice or paffion behind. the curtain. Paffion, as obferved above*, hath fuch influence over us, as to give a falie light to all its objects. Agreeable paffions prepoffefs the mind in favour of their objects, and difagreeable paffions, no less against their objects: a woman is all perfection in her lover's opinion, while, in the eye of a rival beauty, fhe is awkward and disagreeable when the paffion of love is gone, beauty vanishes with it,-nothing left of that genteel motion, that fprightly converfation, those numberless graces, which formerly, in the lover's opinion, charmed all hearts. To a zealot every one of his own fect is a faint, while the most upright of a different fect are to him children

* Page 120.

children of perdition: the talent of speaking in a friend, is more regarded than prudent conduct in any other. Nor will this surprise one acquainted with the world: our opinions, the refult frequently of various and complicated views, are commonly fo flight and wavering, as readily to be fufceptible of a bias from paffion.

With that natural bias another circumstance concurs, to give paffion an undue influence on our opinions and belief; and that is a strong tendency in our nature to juftify our paffions as well as our actions, not to others only, but even to ourselves. That tendency is peculiarly remarkable with refpect to difagreeable paffions: by its influence, objects are magnified or leffened, circumftances fupplied or fuppreffed, every thing coloured and disguised, to answer the end of juftification. Hence the foundation of felfdeceit, where a man impofes upon himself innocently, and even without fufpicion of a bias.

There are fubordinate means that contribute to pervert the judgment, and to make us form opinions contrary to truth; of which I fhall mention two. First, it was formerly obferved *, that though ideas feldom ftart up in the mind without connection, yet that ideas fuited to the prefent tone of mind are readily fuggefted by any flight connection: the arguments for a favourite opinion

* Chap. I.

Se

opinion are always at hand, while we often fearch in vain for thofe that cross our inclination. cond, The mind taking delight in agreeable circumftances or arguments, is deeply impreffed with them; while thofe that are disagreeable are hurried over fo as fcarce to make any impreffion: the fame argument, by being relished or not relished, weighs fo differently, as in truth to make conviction depend more on paffion than on reafoning. This obfervation is fully juftified by experience: to confine myself to a fingle inftance; the numberless abfurd religious tenets that at different times have peftered the world, would be altogether unaccountable but for that irregular bias of paffion.

We proceed to a more pleasant task, which is, to illuftrate the foregoing obfervations by proper examples. Gratitude, when warm, is often exerted upon the children of the benefactor; efpecially where he is removed out of reach by death or absence*. The paffion in this cafe being exerted for the fake of the benefactor, requires no peculiar excellence in his children: but the practice of doing good to these children produces affection for them, which never fails to advance them in our esteem. By fuch means, ftrong connections of affection are often formed among individuals,

See part. 1. fect. 1. of the prefent chapter.

individuals, upon the flight foundation now mentioned.

Envy is a paffion, which, being altogether unjuftifiable, cannot be excufed but by disguifing it under fome plaufible name. At the fame time, no paffion is more eager than envy, to give its object a difagreeable appearance: it magnifies every bad quality, and fixes on the moft humbling circumstances:

Caffius. I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life; but for my fingle self,

I had as lief not be, as live to be

In awe of fuch a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæfar, fo were you;
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tyber chafing with his fhores,
Cæfar fays to me, Dar'st thou, Caffius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?-Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

And bid him follow; fo indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it,
With lufty finews; throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,
Cæfar cry'd, Help me, Caffius, or I fink.

I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchifes bear; fo from the waves of Tyber

Did

Did I the tired Cæfar: and this man

Is now become a god, and Caffius is

A wretched creature; and muft bend his body,
If Cæfar carelessly but nod on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake. 'Tis true, this god did shake;
His coward lips did from their colour fly,

And that fame eye whose bend doth awe the world,
Did lofe its luftre; I did hear him groan;
Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
Alas! it cry'd-Give me fome drink, Titinius,——
As a fick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of fuch a feeble temper should

So get a start of the majestic world,

And bear the palm alone.

Julius Cæfar, A&t 1. Sc. 3.

Glo'fter, inflamed with refentment against his fon Edgar, could even force himself into a momentary conviction that they were not related:

O ftrange faften'd villain!

Would he deny his letter?-I never got him.

King Lear, Act 11. Sc. 3.

When by great fenfibility of heart, or other means, grief becomes immoderate, the mind, in order to justify itself, is prone to magnify the cause and if the real caufe admit not of being

magnified,