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And if so much labour and skill has been employed to construct and to adorn the casket, what may we not expect of the jewel it contains? which will subsequently be brought under our consideration.

THE PASSIONS.

Is then the being, who such rule attains,
Nought but a bunch of fibres, bones, and veins ?
Is all that acts, contrives, obeys, commands,
Nought but the fingers of two feeble hands;
Hands that, a few uncertain summers o'er,
Moulder in kindred dust, and move no more?
No: powers sublimer far that frame inspire,
And warm with energy of nobler fire.

Our remarks upon the anatomy of the human body were concluded with a description of the brain; and we there stated that gland to be the seat of all sensation. This has led me to believe that the passions are all seated in the spirituous dews of the brain also; or, in other words, that the passions originate in impressions made upon the senses.

But, as it is not essential to our present purpose to discover the seat of the passions,† we shall not enter into any dispute on this point: it will be sufficient for our present design, that we describe their nature and influence.

The different forms and shapes in which our passions appear, the sudden and secret turns and windings, with their strange mixtures

The passion of love, I conceive, could not be produced, in many cases, without the sense of sight; love is in the eye.

The passion of hatred is occasioned by some injury being received, either in body or mind; that produces pain.

Seeing some animal or human being dreadfully tortured, strikes upon the sympathetic nerve, and causes sympathy or compassion, &c. &c.

+ Dr. Cogan places the seat of the passions in the mind. Mr. Groves in the heart.Descartes in the corporeal system.-Dr. Watts calls them the soul's sensations of some commotions in animal nature.-Lord Kaimes calls them the animal spirits.

and complications, in their continual exercise, are innumerable and nameless. It is almost as impossible to reduce them to a perfect scheme, and to range all their excursions in exact order of science, as it is to bring them under complete government in practice.

Yet, since it is of such vast importance in human life, to regulate their motions, that they may not become utterly exorbitant and mischievous, I thought it proper, for this end, to make a diligent enquiry into the nature of these mingled powers of flesh and spirit, to take a survey of them in a comprehensive view, and draw them into a little system. I have attempted to range them in some tolerable order and method, under general names; to trace out and observe their causes, their effects, their influences on human affairs, and the various purposes which they serve in the life of man. is very desirable, as it is a part of the science of human nature, or the knowledge of ourselves; and this will also give us some assistance toward the forming proper rules for their better management, and the bringing these active and restless promoters or disturbers of our happiness, under a moral and religious discipline; without which, we can neither be men of wisdom nor of piety.

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The natural affections of man are designed for valuable ends in life, when put under due government. They will render difficult duties easy, and relieve many of the troubles and fatigues of the present state. But if they are let run loose without controul, or if they are abused, and employed to wrong purposes, they become the springs and occasions of much mischief and misery.

The interests of virtue and vice are generally concerned in this matter. The regulation of the passions, is a thing of unspeakable moment to us, considered either as men, or as Christians. Ungoverned passions break all the bonds of human society and peace, and would change the tribes of mankind into brutal herds, or make the world a mere wilderness of savages. Passion, unbridled, would violate all the sacred ties of religion, and raise the sons of men in arms against their Creator. Where passion runs riot, there are none of the rights of God or man secure from its insolence.

The face of man is the rendezvous of all the symptoms both of his moral and physical affections; tranquillity, anger, threatening,

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joy, smiles, laughter, malice, love, envy, jealousy, pride, contempt, disdain or indignation, irony, arrogance, tears, terror, astonishment, horror, fear, shame, humiliation, sorrow, affliction, &c. The different shades of these characters appear to us of sufficient importance to form a principal article in the natural history of man.

When the mind is at ease, all the features of the face are in a state of profound tranquillity. Their proportion, harmony, and union, point out the serenity of the thoughts. But when the soul is agitated, the human face becomes a living canvas, whereon the passions are represented with equal delicacy and energy, where every emotion of the soul is expressed by some feature, and every action by some mark; the lively impression of which anticipates the will, and reveals, by pathetic signs, our secret agitation, and those intentions which we are anxious to conceal. It is particularly in the eyes that the soul is painted in the strongest colours and with the most delicate. Le Brun shades.

Lastly, we should study the passions.

To examine them accurately, indeed, requires much skill, pa tience, observation, and judgment: but to form any idea of the human mind, and its various operations; to detect the errors that arise from heated temperament and intellectual excess; to know how to touch their various strings, and to direct and employ them in the best of all services: I say, to accomplish these ends, the study of Watts the passions is of the greatest consequence.

They sat them down to weep, nor only tears
Rain'd at their eyes, but high winds worse within

Began to rise; high passions, anger, hate,

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The passions, then, must be governed, or they will govern us and, like all other slaves when in possession of power, will become the most savage and merciless of tyrants.

Love, justice, nature, pity, and revenge,
Have kindled up a wildfire in my breast,
And I am all a civil war within,

And, like a vessel struggling in a storm,

Porteus.

Require more hands than one to steer me upright. Dryden.

For the sake of perspicuity, we will divide the passions into three classes.

1. Those of a violent or brutish kind; such as anger, malice, revenge, &c.

2. Those which are less violent, and partaking more of human feeling; such as admiration, astonishment, fear, &c.

3. Those which embrace all the sweets of human nature; such as love, joy, pleasure, &c.

FIRST CLASS.

Anger.

Anger, viewed as a passion, that is, as referring to the first impression, in which we are passive; or the impression preceding the external signs, which constitute the emotion; may be considered as a painful sensation, of a heating and irritating nature. It is an irksome stimulus, by which the animal spirits are troubled and violently agitated; yet the sensation is not so painful as in the excesses of sorrow or of fear. Where the injury appears great, totally unprovoked, too recent or sudden for the mind to call up motives of restraint; when surprise at receiving an offence from a quarter the most remote from expectation, or astonishment at base and ungrateful returns for benefits conferred, accompany the first impulse of passion, an ardent desire of revenge is immediately Dr. Cogan.

excited.

When I describe anger, as including some degree of malevolence in it, this does not always mean the wishing or designing of real or lasting mischief to the offending party; for parents are angry

with their children whom they love fondly, and wish them no other hurt but some present pain, to amend and cure their folly.

If anger rise to a very high degree, it is wrath, fury, and rage; and it is called a short madness, because some persons under the violent influence of this passion, fling about every thing that comes in their way, and appear, for a time, as though they were void of reason; and some persons, by an excessive indulgence of it, have grown distracted.

Anger, when rising, is prevented by a spirit of meekness and forbearance; and when raised, it is subdued by a spirit of forgiveWatts

ness.

Anger is displicency, with some degree of malevolence. Anger, rising to an excessive degree, is rage and fury. Anger, deeply rooted, is rancour and spite. Anger, arising on trifling occasions, and expressed in little tokens of resentment, is peevishness. Anger, arising from an affront, offered by a person far beneath us, is indignation, or a mixture of anger and disdain. Ryland.

Anger, which accelerates the motion of the blood, and determines its impetus to the head and superior parts, is one of the most violent and vigorous passions of the mind: it glows in the eye; the cheeks redden; the voice is thick and stammering; bilious vomitings, or a copious salivation, frequently follows; with apoplexy, pleurisy, hæmorrhages, phrenitis, or violent fever. But to these, high as they sometimes rise, not unfrequently succeed debility, languor, and depression, as the turbulent ocean sinketh into a silent calm. Falconer on the Influence of the Passions.

The effects of anger upon the countenance. The eyes become red and inflamed; the eye-ball is staring and sparkling; the eye-brows are sometimes elevated and sometimes sunk down equally; the forehead is very much wrinkled, with wrinkles between the eyes; the nostrils are open and enlarged; the lips pressing against one another, the under one rising over the upper one leaves the corners of the mouth a little open, making a cruel and disdainful grin.

Le Brun

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