impressions of Fear or of Sorrow, change the appearance of every thing around us. Every trifle becomes the cause of terror; and every object loses its power to charm, unless it should administer to our melancholy. Sorrow naturally disposes to impatience, discontent, and fearful apprehension, in cases which have no connection with the primitive cause. Heavy disappointment, where expectation was illfounded, forbids us to indulge hope where the encouragement is the greatest. Fear and dread dispose to cruelty, to treachery, and sometimes to acts of desperation which resemble courage. As the passions and affections which are most analogous to each other, so readily blend together, or succeed in an easy currency, it is natural to suppose that those which are of an opposite nature and tendency must be repulsive; as joy and sorrow, hope and fear, love and hatred. For although complicated circumstances may place the mind under their influence, at the same period, yet the one is calculated to oppose and check the other; each exerting it characteristic influence. Thus when the success of any desired event is partial, sorrow may accompany joy. The effects of glad tidings are rendered incomplete, by the addition of some mournful catastrophe. When In victory, for example, is purchased by the death of a friend, or of a favourite general. such chequered incidents, the mind passes over from one event to the other, and feels the influence of each, separately and alternately. In cases of a dubious nature, the mind is sometimes stagnated, or suspended between hope and fear; and sometimes agitated by each pas. sion by turns. In this manner may love have some intercourse with anger; as in parents, whose resentment, at the improper conduct of their children, may even be inspired by the warmest affection; and the lover may be tormented by the caprices of his mistress, whom he cannot resolve to hate. The opposite passions and affections are, in instances of the like nature, excited by different and opposite circumstances, residing in the same exciting cause; each producing its own characteristic effect. Fearful, anxiety, and joy in the extreme, are so diametrically opposite, and their pathological effects upon the system so contrary, that an immediate transition from the one to the other is extremely difficult, if not impossible; and by the violence committed upon the animal system, it might be productive of fatal consequences. It is observable that in such cases, the salutary P transition is made through the medium of the pathological effects, which are the usual indications of Sorrow. Tears and joyful lamentations are the first tokens of the removal of ex. cessive fear. A sudden relaxation, as it were, succeeds to the agonizing constriction which accompanies that passion, and this prepares the mind for the pleasing vivacity which is the natural character of joy. Every medical practitioner, as often as he has assisted at any painful and dangerous operation, which has proved succesful, must have observed these effects produced upon the sympathizing attendants; and every affectionate Female will recollect these singular emotions, upon the happy delivery of her friend, whom she has supposed to be in imminent danger, The singularity may perhaps be explained in the following manner. Previous to the fortunate issue, Sorrow for the sufferings of the distressed object, and anxious Fears respecting the event, were intimately blended together; while the pathological tokens of the latter, suppressed those of the former. Upon the sudden removal of Fear, its characteristic restrictions are removed, the residue of Sorrow becomes permanent, and the agitated spirits are tranquillized by the effusion of tears. A Melancholy state of mind is most soothed, at the commencement, by what seems to feed its melancholy. The excess of grief will listen to nothing which is not somewhat in unison with it. It may afterwards be alleviated by a degree of cheerfulness, in a friend who has wept for the distress, and whose sympathy has thus inspired a confidence. But no greater violence can be committed upon persons in the anguish of sorrow, than an attempt at gaiety, or the proposition of frivolous amusements. Nothing so effectually subdues the violence of Anger, as the fortunate suggestion of ludicrous ideas. Whatever excites a smile or a laugh, excites a sensation totally incompatible with rage, or with deep resentment. It has often happened that a something ridiculous, in the ideas or conduct of the offender, has averted the punishment due to his carelessness and inadvertency; or that some gay and cheerful thought, has at once obliterated resentment, against a conduct not entirely trivial. We are told by ancient fabulists, that when Apollo was about to shoot Mercury, who was disguised as a herdsman, being incensed at this thievish deity, ⚫ for having stolen some cattle which Apollo was destined to watch, he applied to his quiver for 212 an arrow, in order to revenge the offence; but discovering that the arch thief had prevented the effects of his anger, by previously stealing all the arrows, he was so diverted at the jest that his anger immediately subsided. Iracundiam voluptate superante. In the quarrel between Jupiter and Juno, Homer represents the Queen of Heaven as terrified into silence, and merely attempting to suppress the signs of a resentment, which she could not subdue. But he informs us, that it was the jest of Vulcan, in taking upon him an office, for which he was so ill qualified, and becoming cupbearer, which effectually restored mirth and good-humour among the Celestials. Vulcan with awkward grace his office plies; POPE. OBSERVATION IV. On the Seat of the Passions. Ir is usual for Writers on the Passions to speculate concerning their Seat, whether it be in |