nations with curiofity, but without furprise;

be

cause they have no fuch resemblance in the capital parts as to please us by contrasting the fmaller parts. But a new cut of a fleeve or of a pocket enchants by its novelty, and in oppofition to the former fashion, raises fome degree of furprise.

That refemblance and diffimilitude have an enlivening effect upon objects of fight, is made fufficiently evident and that they have the fame effect upon objects of the other fenfes, is alfo certain. Nor is that law confined to the external senses; for characters contrafted make a greater figure by the oppofition: Iago, in the tragedy of Othello, fays,

He hath a daily beauty in his life

That makes me ugly.

The character of a fop, and of a rough warrior, are no where more fuccefsfully contrasted than in Shakespeare :

Hotspur. My liege, I did deny no prisoners;
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my fword;
Came there a certain Lord, neat trimly drefs'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new-reap'd,
Shew'd like a ftubble-land at harveft-home.
He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held

A

A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He gave his nofe ;-and still he smil'd, and talk'd:
And as the foldiers bare dead bodies by,

He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a flovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility!

With many holiday and lady terms

He queftion'd me: among the reft, demanded.
My pris'ners, in your Majesty's behalf.

I then all smarting with my wounds; being gall'd
To be so pefter'd with a popinjay,

Out of my grief, and my impatience,
Answer'd, neglectingly, I know not what :

He should, or should not; for he made me mad,
To fee him fhine fo brifk, and smell fo fweet,

And talk fo like a waiting gentlewoman,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds; (God fave the mark!)

And telling me, the fov'reigneft thing on earth

Was parmacity, for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villainous faltpetre fhould be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly and but for these vile guns
He would himself have been a foldier.

First part, Henry IV. A&t 1. Sc. 4.

Paffions and emotions are alfo inflamed by comparison. A man of high rank humbles the byftanders, even to annihilate them in their own opinion: Cæfar, beholding the statue of Alexander, was greatly mortified, that now at the age of thir

ty-two

ty-two when Alexander died, he had not performed one memorable action.

Our opinions alfo are much influenced by comparison. A man whofe opulence exceeds the ordinary ftandard, is reputed richer than he is in reality; and wisdom or weakness, if at all remarkable in an individual, is generally carried beyond the truth.

The opinion a man forms of his present diftress is heightened by contrafting it with his former happiness.

Could I forget

What I have been, I might the better bear

What I am deftin'd to. I'm not the first

That have been wretched: but to think how much I have been happier.

Southern's Innocent Adultery, Act 11.

The diftrefs of a long journey makes even an indifferent inn agreeable: and in travelling, when the road is good, and the horseman well covered, a bad day may be agreeable by making him fenfible how fnug he is.

The fame effect is equally remarkable, when a man opposes his condition to that of others. A fhip toffed about in a ftorm, makes the spectator reflect upon his own ease and security, and puts these in the ftrongest light:

Suave, mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis,
E terra magnum alterius fpectare laborem ;

Non

Non quia vexari quemquam eft jucunda voluptas, Sed quibus ipfe malis careas, quia cernere suave est. Lucret. 1.2. principio.

A man in grief cannot bear mirth: it gives him a more lively notion of his unhappiness, and of course makes him more unhappy. Satan contemplating the beauties of the terreftrial paradife, has the following exclamation :

With what delight could I have walk'd thee round,
If I could joy in ought, sweet interchange
Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now fea, and fhores with forest crown'd,
Rocks, dens, and caves! but I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I fee
Pleasures about me, fo much more I feel
Torment within me, as from the hateful fiege
Of contraries: all good to me becomes

Bane, and in heav'n much worfe would be my ftate.
Paradife Loft, book 9. l. 114.

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven vifits,

Are to a wife man ports and happy havens.

Teach thy neceffity to reafon thus:
There is no virtue like neceffity.

Think not the King did banish thee;
But thou the King. Wo doth the heavier fit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go fay, I fent thee forth to purchase honour;
And not, the King exil'd thee. Or fuppofe,
Devouring peftilence hangs in our air,
And thou art flying to a fresher clime.

Look what thy foul holds dear, imagine it

To lie that way thou go'ft, not whence thou com 'ft.

Suppofe

Suppofe the finging birds, musicians;

The grafs whereon thou tread'ft, the prefence-floor;
The flowr's, fair ladies; and thy fteps, no more
Than a delightful measure, or a dance.
For gnarling Sorrow hath lefs power to bite
The man that mocks at it, and sets it light.
Bolingbroke. Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frofty Caucafus ?

Or cloy the hungry edge of Appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic fummer's heat?
Oh, no! the apprehenfion of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.
King Richard II. A&t 1. Sc.6.

The appearance of danger gives fometimes pleafure, fometimes pain. A timorous perfon upon the battlements of a high tower, is feized with fear, which even the consciousness of fecurity cannot diffipate. But upon one of a firm head, this fituation has a contrary effect: the appearance of danger heightens, by oppofition, the consciousness of fecurity, and confequently, the fatisfaction that arifes from fecurity: here the feeling resembles that above mentioned, occacafioned by a fhip labouring in a storm.

The effect of magnifying or leffening objects by, means of comparifon, is fo familiar, that no philofopher has thought of fearching for a caufe *.

The

* Practical writers upon the fine arts will attempt any thing, being blind both to the difficulty and danger. De

Piles,