Judge, oh you gods! how dearly Cæfar lov'd him;
This, this, was the unkindest cut of all ;

For when the noble Cæfar faw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him; then burst his mighty heart:
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Which all the while ran blood, great Cæfar fell,
Even at the base of Pompey's ftatue.

O what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilft bloody treafon flourish'd over us.
O, now you weep; and I perceive you feel
The dint of pity; thefe are gracious drops.
Kind fouls! what, weep you when you but be-
hold

Our Cæfar's vesture wounded? look you here!
Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, by traitors.
Julius Cæfar, a&t 3. fc.6.

Had Antony directed upon the confpirators the thoughts of his audience, without paving the way by raifing their grief, his fpeech perhaps might have failed of fuccefs.

Hatred and other diffocial paffions, produce effects directly oppofite to those above mentioned. If I hate a man, his children, his relations, nay his property, become to

me

me objects of averfion. His enemies, on the other hand, I am difpofed to esteem.

The more flight and tranfitory connections, have generally no power to produce a communicated paffion. Anger, when fudden and violent, is one exception; for if the perfon who did the injury be removed out of reach, this paffion will vent itself upon any related object, however flight the relation be. Another exception makes a greater figure. A group of beings or things, becomes often the object of a communicated paffion, even where the relation of the individuals to the principal object is but faint. Thus though I put no value upon a fingle man for living in the fame town with myself; my townsmen however, confidered in a body, are preferred before others. This is ftill more remarkable with respect to my countrymen in general. The grandeur of the complex object, swells the paffion of felf-love by the relation I have to my native country; and every paffion, when it swells beyond its ordinary bounds, hath, in that circumstance, a peculiar tendency to expand itself along rela

ted

ted objects. In fact, instances are not rare, of perfons, who, upon all occafions, are willing to facrifice their lives and fortunes for their country. Such influence upon the mind of man, hath a complex object, or, more properly speaking, a general term *.

The fenfe of order hath, in the communication of paffion, an influence not less remarkable than in the communication of emotions. It is a common obfervation, that a man's affection to his parents is lefs vigorous than to his children. The order of nature in defcending to children, aids the tranfition of the affection. The afcent to a pa rent, contrary to this order, makes the tranfition more difficult. Gratitude to a benefactor is readily extended to his children; but not fo readily to his parents. The difference however betwixt the natural and inverted order, is not fo confiderable, but that it may be balanced by other circumftances. Pliny gives an account of a woman of rank condemned

See Ellays on morality and natural religion, part 1. eff. 2. ch.5.

+Lib. 7. cap. 36.

VOL. I.

M

to

to die for a crime; and, to avoid public fhame, detained in prifon to die of hunger. Her life being prolonged beyond expectation, it was discovered, that she was nourifhed by fucking milk from the breafts of her daughter. This inftance of filial piety, which aided the transition and made ascent not lefs cafy than descent is for ordinary, procured a pardon to the mother, and a penfion to both. The ftory of Androcles and the lion * may be accounted for in the fame manner. The admiration, of which the lion was the caufe, for his kindness and gratitude to Androcles, produced goodwill to Androcles, and pardon of his crime.

And this leads to other observations upon communicated paffions. I love my daughter less after she is married, and my mother less after a second marriage. The marriage of my fon or my father diminishes not my affection fo remarkably. The fame observation holds with respect to friendship, gratitude, and other paffions. The love I bear my friend, is but faintly extended to his married daughter. The refentment I have against

*Aulus Gellius, lib. 5. cap. 14.

against a man, is readily extended against children who make part of his family: not fo readily against children who are forisfamiliated, especially by marriage. This difference is alfo more remarkable in daughters than in fons. Thefe are curious facts; and to evolve the caufe we muft examine minutely, that operation of the mind by which a paffion is extended to a related object. In confidering two things as related, the mind is not ftationary, but paffeth and repaffeth from the one to the other, viewing the relation from each of them perhaps oftener than once. This holds more efpe-, cially in confidering a relation betwixt things of unequal rank, as betwixt the, cause and the effect, or betwixt a principal and an acceffory. In contemplating the relation betwixt a building and its ornaments, the mind is not fátisfied with a fingle tranfition from the former to the latter. It must alfo view the relation, beginning at the latter, and paffing from it to the former. This vibration of the mind in paffing and repafling betwixt things that are, related, explains the facts above mentioned.