duceth a habit, and confirms the authority of virtue : with respect to education in particular, what a spacious and commodious avenue to the heart of a young perfon is here opened !

In

SECT. V.

many inftances one Emotion is productive of another. The fame of Paffions.

In the first chapter it is observed, that the re

N

lations by which things are connected, have a remarkable influence on the train of our ideas. I here add, that they have an influence, no lefs remarkable, in the production of emotions and paffions. Beginning with the former, an agreeable object makes every thing connected with it appear agreeable; for the mind gliding fweetly and eafily through related objects, carries along the agreeable properties it meets with in its paffage, and bestows them on the prefent object, which thereby appears more agreeable than when confidered apart. This reafon may appear obfcure and metaphysical, but the fact is beyond all difpute. No rela

*

tion

* Such pronenefs has the mind to this communication of properties, that we often find a property afcribed to a related object, of which naturally it is not fufceptible. Sir Richard Grenville in a fingle fhip, being furprifed by the Spanish fleet, was advised to retire. He utterly refufed to turn from the enemy; declaring, "he would rather die, than difhonour himself, his country, and her Majefty's fhip." Hakluyt, vol. 2. part 2. p. 169. To aid the communication of properties in inftances like the prefent, there always must be a momentary perfonification: a fhip must be imag ined a fenfible being, to make it fufceptible of honour or dishonour. In the battle of Mantinea, Epaminondas being mortally wounded, was carried to his tent in a manner dead: recovering his fenfes, the firft thing he inquired about was his shield; which being brought, be kiffed it as the companion of his valour and glory. It must be remarked, that among the Greeks and Romans it was deemed infamous for a foldier to return from battle without his fhield.

tion is more intimate than that between a being and its qualities and accordingly, every quality in a hero, even the flighteft, makes a greater figure than more fubftantial qualities in others. The propenfity of carrying along agreeable properties from one object to another, is fometimes fo vigorous, as to convert defects into properties the wry neck of Alexander was imitated by his courtiers as a real beauty, without intention to flatter: Lady Piercy, fpeaking of her husband Hotspur,

By his light
Did all the chivalry of England move,
To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass,
Wherein the noble youths did drefs themselves.
He had no legs that practis'd not his gait :

And fpeaking thick, which Nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant :

For those who could fpeak flow and tardily,

Would turn their own perfection to abuse,

To feem like him. Second part, Henry IV. að 2, sc. 6.

The fame communication of paffion obtains in the relation of principal and acceffory. Pride, of which felf is the object, expands itfelf upon a house, a garden, fervants, equipage, and every acceffory. A lover addreffeth his miftrefs' glove in the following terms:

Sweet ornament that decks a thing divine.

Veneration for relics has the fame natural foundation; and that foundation with the fuperftructure of fuperftition, has occafioned much blind devotion to the moft ridiculous objects, to the fuppofed milk, for example, of the Virgin Mary, or the fuppofed blood of St. Januarius.* A temple is in a proper fenfe an ac

ceffory

But why worship the crofs which is fuppofed to be that upon which our Saviour fuffered? That crofs ought to be the object of hatred, not of veneration. If it be urged, that as an inflrument of Chrift's fuffering it was falutary to mankind, I anfwer, Why is not alfo Pontius Pilate rever. enced, Caiaphas the high priest, and Judas Iscariot ?

t

ceffory of the deity to which it is dedicated: Diana is chafte, and not only her temple, but the very ificle which hangs on it, muft partake of that property:

The noble fifter of Poplicola,

The moon of Rome; chafte as the ificle
That's curdled by the froft from pureft fnow,
And hangs on Dian's temple.

Coriolanus, at 5.fc. 3.

Thus it is, that the refpect and efteem, which the great, the powerful, the opulent, naturally command, are in fome meafure communicated to their drefs, to their manners, and to all their connections and it is this communication of properties, which, prevailing even over the natural tafte of beauty, helps to give currency to what is called the fashion.

By means of the fame eafinefs of communication, every bad quality in an enemy is fpread upon all his connections. The fentence pronounced against Ravaillac for the affaffination of Henry IV. of France, ordains, that the house in which he was born fhould be razed to the ground, and that no other building fhould ever be erected on that fpot. Enmity will extend paffion to objects ftill lefs connected. The Swifs fuffer no peacocks to live, because the Duke of Auftria, their ancient enemy, wears a peacock's tail in his creft. A relation more flight and tranfitory than that of enmity, may have the fame effect: thus the bearer of bad tidings becomes an object of averfion :

Fellow, begone; I cannot brook thy fight;
This news hath made thee a most ugly man.

King John, at 3. fc, x.

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a lofing office: and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a fullen bell
Remember'd, tolling a departed friend.

Second part, Henry IV. ad 1. fc. 3.

In borrowing thus properties from one object to beftow them on another, it is not any object indifferently that will anfwer. The object from which properties are borrowed, muft be fuch as to warm the mind and enliven the imagination. Thus the beauty of a miftrefs, which inflames the imagination, is readily com. municated to a glove, as above mentioned; but the greatest beauty a glove is fufceptible of, touches the mind fo little, as to be entirely dropped in paffing from it to the owner. In general, it may be obferved, that any drefs upon a fine woman is becoming but that ornaments upon one who is homely, must be elegant indeed to have any remarkable effect in mending her appearance.*

The emotions produced as above may properly be termed Secondary, being occafioned either by antecedent emotions or antecedent paffions, which in that refpect may be termed primary. And to complete the present theory, I muft add, that a fecondary emotion may readily fwell into a paffion for the acceffory object, provided the acceffory be a proper object for defire. Thus it happens that one paffion is often productive of another: examples are without number; the fole difficulty is a proper choice. I begin with felf-love, and the power it hath to generate love to children. Every man, befide making part of a greater fyftem, like a comet, a planet, or fatellite only, hath a lefs fyftem of his own, in the centre of which he reprefents the fun darting his fire and heat all around; efpecially upon his nearest connections: the connection between a man and his children,

A house and gardens furrounded with pleafant fields, all in good order, bestow greater luftre upon the owner than at first will be imagined. The beauties of the former are, by intimacy of connection, readily communicated to the latter; and if it have been done at the expenfe of the owner himself, we naturally transfer to him whatever of defign, art, or tafle appears in the performance. Should not this be a flrong motive with proprietors to embellish and improve their fields ?

dren, fundamentally that of cause and effect, becomes, by the addition of other circumstances, the completest that can be among individuals; and therefore self-love, the most vigorous of all paffions, is readily. expanded upon children. The fecondary emotion they produce by means of their connection, is fufficiently ftrong to move defire even from the beginning; and the new paffion fwells by degrees, till it rivals in fome measure felf-love, the primary paffion. To demonftrate the truth of this theory, I urge the following argument. Remorfe for betraying a friend, or murdering an enemy in cold blood, makes a man even hate himfelf: in that state, he is not confcious of affection to his children, but rather of difguft or ill-will. What caufe can be affigned for that change, other than the hatred he has to himself, which is expanded upon his children? And iffo, may we not with equal reafon derive from felflove, fome part at least of the affection a man generally has to them? ..

The affection a man bears to his blood relations, de pends partly on the fame principle: felf-love is alfo expanded upon them; and the communicated paffion is more or less vigorous in proportion to the degree of connection. Nor doth felf-love reft here it is, by the force of connection, communicated even to things inanimate and hence the affection a man bears to his property, and to every thing he calls his own.

Friendship, lefs vigorous than felf-love, is, for that reafon, lefs apt to communicate itself to the friend's children, or other relations. Inftances however are not wanting of fuch communicated paffion, arifing from friendship when it is ftrong. Friendship may go higher in the matrimonial state than in any other condition and Otway, in Venice preferved, takes advantage of that circumftance: in the fcene where Belvidera fues to her father for pardon, fhe is reprefented as pleading

E 4