the place of another in whatever circumftance he is in, and to affect us in a like manner; fo that this paffion may, as the occafion requires, turn either on pain or pleasure; but with the modifi: cations mentioned in fome cafes in fect. II. As to imitation and preference, nothing more need be faid.

SECT. XIX.

THE CONCLUSION.

f

I BELIEVED that an attempt to range and me. thodize fome of our most leading paffions, would be a good preparative to fuch an inquiry as we are going to make in the enfuing difcourfe. The paffions I have mentioned are almoft the only ones which it can be neceffary to confider, in our prefent defign; though the variety of the paffions is great, and worthy in every branch of that variety of an attentive inveftigation. The more accurate. ly we fearch into the human mind, the ftronger traces we every where find of his wifdom who made it. If a discourse on the ufe of the parts of the body may be confidered as an hymn to the Creator; the use of the paffions, which are the organs of the mind, cannot be barren of praise to him, nor unproductive to ourselves of that noble and uncommon union of fcience and admiration, which a contemplation of the works of infinite

wisdom

wisdom alone can afford to a rational mind; whilft, referring to him whatever we find of right or good or fair in ourselves, difcovering his ftrength and wisdom even in our own weakness and imperfection, honouring them where we discover them clearly, and adoring their profundity where we are loft in our fearch, we may be inquifitive without impertinence, and elevated without pride; we may be admitted, if I may dare to fay fo, into the counfels of the Almighty by a confideration of his works. The elevation of the mind ought to be the principal end of all our ftudies, which if they do not in fome measure effect, they are of very little fervice to us. But, befides this great purpofe, a confideration of the rationale of our paffions feems to me very neceffary for all who would affect them upon folid and fure principles. It is not enough to know them in general: to affect them after a delicate manner, or to judge properly of any work defigned to affect them, we fhould know the exact boundaries of their feveral jurisdictions; we fhould purfue them through all their variety of operations, and pierce into the inmoft, and what might appear inacceffible parts of our nature,

Quod latet arcanâ non enarrabile fibra.

Without all this it is poffible for a man, after a confufed manner, fometimes to fatisfy his own

mind of the truth of his work; but he can never have a certain determinate rule to go by, nor can he ever make his propofitions fufficiently clear to others. Poets, and orators, and painters, and those who cultivate other branches of the liberal arts, have without this critical knowledge fucceeded well in their several provinces, and will fucceed; as among artificers there are many machines made and even invented without any exact knowledge of the principles they are governed by. It is, I own, not uncommon to be wrong in theory and right in practice; and we are happy that it is fo. Men often act right from their feelings, who afterwards reafon but ill on them from principle; but as it is impoffible to avoid an attempt at such reafoning, and equally impoffible to prevent its having fome influence on our practice, furely it is worth taking fome pains to have it just, and founded on the bafis of fure experience. We might expect that the artists themfelves would have been our fureft guides; but the artists have been too much occupied in the practice: the philofophers have done little; and what they have done, was moftly with a view to their own schemes and fyf. tems: and as for those called criticks, they have generally fought the rule of the arts in the wrong place; they fought it among poems, pictures, engravings, ftatues, and buildings. But art can never give the rules that make an art. This is, I be

lieve, the reason why artists in general, and poets principally, have been confined in fo narrow a circle; they have been rather imitators of one another than of nature; and this with so faithful an uniformity, and to fo remote an antiquity, that it is hard to fay who gave the firft model. Criticks follow them, and therefore can do little as guides. I can judge but poorly of any thing, whilst I meafure it by no other standard than itself. The true ftandard of the arts is in every man's power; and an eafy obfervation of the most common, fometimes of the meaneft things in nature, will give the trueft lights, where the greatest fagacity and industry that flights fuch obfervation, must leave us in the dark, or, what is worse, amufe and miflead us by falfe lights. In an inquiry it is almost every thing to be once in a right road. I am fatisfied I have done but little by these observations confidered in themselves; and I never should have taken the pains to digeft them, much lefs fhould I have ever ventured to publish them, if I was not convinced that nothing tends more to the corrup tion of science than to fuffer it to ftagnate. These waters must be troubled before they can exert their virtues. A man who works beyond the furface of things, though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others, and may chance to make even his errours fubfervient to the cause of truth. In the following parts I fhall inquire what

things they are that caufe in us the affections of the fublime and beautiful, as in this I have confidered the affections themselves. I only defire one favour, that no part of this discourse may be judged of by itself, and independently of the reft; for I am fenfible I have not difpofed my materials to abide the test of a captious controverfy, but of a fober and even forgiving examination; that they are not armed at all points for battle, but dreffed to visit those who are willing to give a peaceful en trance to truth.

THE END OF THE FIRST PART,