firft. But furprise is not the only cause of the effect defcribed: another concurs, which operates perhaps not lefs powerfully, namely, a principle in human nature that lies ftill in obfcurity, not having been unfolded by any writer, though its effects are extenfive; and as it is not diftinguished by a proper name, the reader must be fatisfied with the following description. Every man who ftudies himself or others, must be fenfible of a tendency or propensity in the mind, to complete every work that is begun, and to carry things to their full perfection. There is little opportunity to difplay that propenfity upon natural operations, which are feldom left imperfect; but in the operations of art, it hath great fcope: it impels us to perfevere in our own work, and to wifh for the completion of what another is doing we feel a fenfible pleasure when the work is brought to perfection; and our pain is no lefs fenfible when we are difappointed. Hence our uneafinefs, when an interesting story is broke off in the middle, when a piece of mufic ends without a close, or when a building or garden is left unfinished. The fame propenfity operates in making collections, fuch as the A cerauthor. any whole works good and bad of tain perfon attempted to collect prints of all the capital paintings, and fucceeded except as to a few. La Bruyere remarks, that an anxious fearch was made for thefe; not for their value, but to complete the fet.* The The examples above given, are of things that can be carried to an end or conclufion. But the fame uneafinefs is perceptible with refpe&t to things that admit not any conclufion; witness a feries that has no end, commonly called an infinite feries. The mind moving along such a fe ries, begins foon to feel an uneafinefs, which becomes more and more fenfible, in continuing its progrefs without hope of an end. An unbounded profpe&t doth not long continue agreeable: we foon feel The final cause of the propenfity is an additional proof of its existence: human works are of no fignificancy till they be completed; and reafon is not always a fufficient counterbalance to indolence : fome principle over and above is neceffary, to excite our industry, and to prevent our stopping fhort in the middle of the course. We need not lofe time to defcribe the co-operation of the foregoing propenfity with furprise, in producing the effect that follows any unusual refemblance or diffimilitude. Surprife firft operates, and .carries feel a flight uneafinefs, which increases with the time we beftow upon the profpect. An avenue without a terminating object, is one inftance of an unbounded profpect; and we might hope to find the cause of its difagreeableness, if it refembled any infinite feries. The eye indeed promifes no refemblance; for the fharpeft eye commands but a certain length of space, and there it is bounded, however obfcurely. But the mind perceives things as they exift; and the line is carried on in idea without end; in which refpect an unbounded profpect is fimilar to an infinite feries. In fact, the uneafinels of an unbounded profpe&t, differs very little in its feeling from that of an infinite feries; and therefore we may reasonably prefume, that both proceed from the fame caufe. We next confider a profpe&t unbounded every way, as, for example, a great plain or the ocean, viewed from an eminence. We feel here an uneafinefs occafioned by the want of an end or termination, precifely as in the other cafes. A profpe&t unbounded every way, is indeed so far fingular, as at firft to be more pleasant than a profpect that is unbounded in one direction only, and afterward to be more painful. But thefe circumftances are easily explained, without wounding the general theory: the pleasure we feel at fir, is a vivid emotion of grandeur, ariGng from the immenfe extent of the object and to increase the pain we feel afterward for the want of a termination, there concurs a pain of a different kind, occasioned by stretching the eye to comprehend_fo wide a profpect; a pain that gradually increases with the repeated efforts we make to grafp the whole. It is the fame principle, if I miflake not, which operates impercepti bly with refpect to quantity and number. Another's property indented into my field, gives me uneafinefs; and I am eager to make the pur chafe, not for profit, but in order to fquare my field. Xerxes and his army, in their paffage to Greece, were fumptuously entertained by Pythius the Lydian: Xerxes recompenfed him with 7000 Darics, which he wanted to complete the sum of four millions. carries our opinion of the resemblance or diffimilitude beyond truth. The propenfity we have been defcribing carries us ftill farther; for it forces upon the mind a conviction, that the resemblance or diffimilitude is complete. We need no better illustration, than the refemblance that is fancied in fome pebbles to a tree or an infect; which refemblance, however faint in reality, is conceived to be wonderfully perfect. The tendency to complete a refemblance acting jointly with furprise, carries the mind fometimes fo far, as even to presume upon future events. In the Greek tragedy entitled Phineides, thofe unhappy women, seeing the place where it was intended they should be flain, cried out with anguifh, "They now faw their cruel destiny had condemned them to die in that place, being the fame where they had been expofed in their infancy.*" The propenfity to advance every thing to its per fection, not only co-operates with furprife to deceive the mind, but of itself is able to produce that effect. Of this we see many inftances where there is no place for surprise; and the first I fhall give is of refemblance. Unumquodque eodem modo diffolvitur quo colligatum eft, is a maxim in the Roman law that has no foundation in truth; for tying and loofing, building and demolishing, are acts oppofite to each other, and are performed by oppofite means: but when these acts are connected by their relation to the fame fubject, their connection leads us to imagine a fort of refemblance between them, which by the foregoing propensity is conceived to be as complete as poffible. The next inftance fhall be of contraft. Addifon obferves, * Ariflotle, poet, cap. 17. * obferves, "That the paleft features look the most agreeable in white; that a face which is overflushed appears to advantage in the deepest scarlet; and that a dark complexion is not a little alleviated by a black hood." The foregoing propenfity ferves to account for thefe appearances; to make which evident, one of the cafes fhall fuffice. A complexion, however dark, never approaches to black when these colours appear together, their oppofition ftrikes us; and the propenfity we have to complete the oppofition makes the darkness of complexion vanish out of fight. The operation of this propenfity, even where there is no ground for furprise, is not confined to opinion or conviction: fo powerful it is, as to make us fometimes proceed to action, in order to complete a refemblance or diffimilitude. If this appear obfcure, it will be made clear by the following inftances. Upon what principle is the lex talionis founded, other than to make the punishment resemble the mischief? Reafon dictates, that there ought to be a conformity or refemblance between a crime and its punishment; and the foregoing propenfity impels us to make the resemblance as complete as poffible. Titus Livius, under the influence of that propenfity, accounts for a certain punishment by a resemblance between it and the crime, too fubtile for common apprehenfion. Treating of Mettus Fuffetius, the Alban general, who, for treachery to the Romans his allies, was fentenced to be torn to pieces by horfes, he puts the following speech in the mouth of Tullus Hoftilius, who decreed the punishment. "Mette Fuffeti, inquit, fi ipfe difcere poffes fidem ac fœdera, fervare, vivo tibi ea disciplina a me adhibita effet. Nunc, quoniam tuum infanabile *Spectator, No. 265. infanabile ingenium eft, at tu tuo fupplicio doce humanum genus, ea fancta credere, quae a te violata funt. Ut igitur paulo ante animum inter Fidenatem Romanamque rem ancipitem geffifti, ita jam corpus paffim diftrahendum dabis.*" By the fame influence, the fentence is often executed upon the very fpot where the crime was committed. In the Electra of Sophocles, Egiftheus is dragged from the theatre into an inner room of the fuppofed palace, to fuffer death where he murdered Agamemnon. Shakespear, whofe knowledge of nature is no less profound than extenfive, has not overlooked this propenfity: Othello. Get me fome poifon, Iago, this night; I'll not expoftulate with her, left her body and her beauty unprovide my mind again; this night, lago. lago. Do it not with poifon; ftrangle her in bed, even in the bed he hath contaminated. Othello. Good, good: The juftice of it pleafes; very good. Othello, act 4. fc. 5. Warwick. From off the gates of York fetch down the head, Your father's head, which Clifford placed there. Third Part of Henry VI. act 2. Sc. 9. Perfons in their last moments are generally feized with an anxiety to be buried with their relations. In the Amynta of Taffo, the lover, hearing that his mis. tress was torn to pieces by a wolf, expreffes a defire to die the fame death.† Upon the fubject in general I have two remarks to add. The first concerns resemblance, which, when too |
