When in her blooming years fhe was your treasure, The lineaments of hers y'have kifs'd fo often, And again, Belvidera. Lay me, I beg you, lay me By the dear ashes of my tender mother : She would have pitied me, had fate yet fpar'd her. Act v. Sc. 1. This explains why any meritorious action, or any illuftrious qualification, in my fon or my friend, is apt to make me over-value myself: if I value my friend's wife or fon upon account of their connection with him, it is ftill more natural that I fhould value myself upon account of my connection with him. Friendship, or any other focial affection, may, by changing the object, produce oppofite effects. Pity, by interefting us ftrongly for the perfon in diftrefs, muft of confequence inflame our refentment against the author of the diftrefs: for, in general, the affection we have for any man, generates in us good-will to his friends, and ill-will to his enemies. Shakespeare fhews great art in the funeral oration pronounced by Antony over the body of Cæfar. He firft endeavours to excite grief in the hearers, by dwelling upon the deplorable lofs of fo great a man: this paffion, interefting them ftrongly in Cæfar's fate, could not not fail to produce a lively fenfe of the treachery and cruelty of the confpirators; an infallible method to inflame the refentment of the people beyond all bounds: Antony. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle. I remember The first time ever Cæfar put it on; 'Twas on a fummer's evening, in his tent, Look! in this place ran Caffius's dagger through ;- For Brutus, as you know, was Cæfar's angel. Judge, oh you Gods! how dearly Cæfar lov'd him! For when the noble Cæfar faw him ftab, O what a fall was there, my countrymen! Our Our Cæfar's vefture wounded? look you here! Had Antony endeavoured to excite his audience to vengeance, without paving the way by raising their grief, his fpeech would not have made the fame impreffion. Hatred, and other diffocial paffions, produce effects directly oppofite to thofe above mentioned. If I hate a man, his children, his relations, nay his property, become to me objects of averfion his enemies, on the other hand, I am difposed to esteem. The more flight and tranfitory relations are not favourable to the communication of paffion. Anger, when fudden and violent, is one exception; for, if the perfon who did the injury be removed out of reach, that paffion will vent itfelf against any related object, however flight the relation be. Another exception makes a greater figure a group of beings or things, becomes often the object of a communicated paffion, even where the relation of the individuals to the percipient is but flight. Thus, though I put no value upon a single man for living in the fame town with myself; my townfmen, however, confidered in a body, are preferred before others. This is ftill more remarkable with respect to my countrymen in general: the grandeur of the complex objects fwells the paffion of felf-love by the the relation I have to my native country; and every paffion, when it fwells beyond its ordinary bounds, hath a peculiar tendency to expand itfelf along related objects. In fact, inftances are not rare, of perfons, who upon all occafions are willing to facrifice their lives and fortunes for their country. Such influence upon the mind of man hath a complex object, or, more properly speaking, a general term *. The fenfe of order hath influence in the communication of paffion. It is a common observation, that a man's affection to his parents is lefs vigorous than to his children: the order of nature in defcending to children, aids the tranfition of the affection: the afcent to a parent, contrary to that order, makes the tranfition more difficult. Gratitude to a benefactor is readily extended to his children; but not fo readily to his parents. The difference, however, between the natural and inverted order, is not fo confiderable, but that it may be balanced by other circumftances. Pliny gives an account of a woman of rank condemned to die for a crime; and, to avoid public fhame, detained in prifon to die of hunger: her life being prolonged beyond expectation, it was difcovered, that * See Effays on morality and natural religion, part 1, eff. 2. ch. 5. + Lib. 7. cap. 36. that he was nourished by fucking milk from the breafts of her daughter. This inftance of filial piety, which aided the tranfition, and made afcent no less eafy than defcent is commonly, procured a pardon to the mother, and a penfion to both. The ftory of Androcles and the lion * may be accounted for in the fame manner: the admiration, of which the lion was the object for his kindness and gratitude to Androcles, produced good-will to Androcles, and a pardon of his crime. And this leads to other obfervations upon communicated paffions. I love my daughter lefs after she is married, and my mother lefs after a fecond marriage: the marriage of my fon or of my father diminishes not my affection fo remarkably. The fame obfervation holds with refpect to friendship, gratitude, and other paffions: the love I bear my friend, is but faintly extended to his married daughter: the refentment I have against a man is readily extended against children who make part of his family; not fo readily against children who are forisfamiliated, especially by marriage. This difference is alfo more remarkable in daughters than in fons. These are curious facts; and, in order to discover the caufe, we muft examine minutely that operation of the mind by which a paffion is extended to a related object. In confidering * Aulus Gellius, lib. 5. cap. 14. |