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Untitled Article
it is often , though not always , governed by the saber precepts of Experience . Still , it can seldom or ever be extinguished : as the effect of our Creator ' s benevolence , of our intellectual and moral nature , and of our high destination , " Hope travels on , nor quite us till we die /'
This passion , at the same time , is not quite independent on our bodily constitution . Those who labour under certain kinds of delirium , however produced , are observed to express great eagerness of hope . The contrary is the fact as to sufferers from hypochondriacal disorders . Fear is in the immediate train of aversion , and may be traced to the same cause . What it is , may , in individual men , be ascertained by means of their
countenances , gestures , language—and frequently their breathless silenceeither when the dreaded object appears , or when thoughts associated with it powerfully recur . In our younger days the fear of death is connected essentially with the adjuncts and signs of death , and employs itself upon them . But the familiar sight of these things causes them to be less and yet less impressive ; whence we may learn that no spectacles , no exhibitions , should be frequent , the design of which is to spread a solemn , a moral , and reii ° i *
ous awe . Hope may easily degenerate into rashness ; fear , into torpidity and despair . Joy respects the attainment of a wished-for object , and is the consequence , of possession and success . Its emotions are , in common , more violent than those of hope , yet not not so durable , pleasing , and beneficial . Intense affection and excessive transport cannot be man ' s ordinary lot .
Associations of thought strongly influence grief as well as joy . Grief is the effect of disappointment , and has considerable variety according to the nature and degree of the disappointment . In minds of ungoverned sensibility , grief soon gives place to its opposite passion- When the emotions are not accompanied by steady principles of conduct , they lie at the mercy of every change of scene , incident , and society . Some of the finest delineations of human character which the pen of Genius has made , illustrate and assume the fact . " Nothing , " says a writer of antiquity , * " dries up so
quickly as a tear . " The remark admits of a wide , a practical , and a very important , application . Grief , real and internal , has a fixed countenance , and the " leaden eye which loves the ground . " Both pleasing and displeasing recollection are united with utility : nor can the nature of them be unknown to those who have an acquaintance with the effects of the great law of association , according to men ' s ages , constitutions , education , employments , and intellectual habits . Memory dwells with delight on whatever contributed to our advantage and gratification , and thus prolongs that gratification and advantage : f to objects of the opposite class ,
* The unknown author of the Lib . Rhetoric , ad C . Herennium , II . 31 . From a note in the Delph . ed ., it appears that the aphorism was delivered originally by Apollonius the Rhetorician : it has been copied , I believe , by other Roman writers . -f The paper from which this Essay has been formed , was drawn up nearly forty-four years since , and then read , as an academical exercise , in the presence of The Rev . Thomas Belshamy whose candid approbation it obtained . Let its author be permittee ) , at this interesting moment , to express his pleasing recollection of these circumstances , and to declare the sentiments of gratitude and respect with which he cherishes the thought , and transcribes the name , of a late honoured friend , once his faithful and accomplished tutor .
Untitled Article
E&say on the Passions . 29
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 29, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/29/
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