Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Select Papers On Various Subjects, Read Before A Literary Society In London.
not barren-and unproductive ; on the contrary , it calls up a thousand others which before laid dormant ; these operating on each other produce such sensibility as , unless relieved b 3 * the removal of the cause , or superseded by another state of mind of greater urgency , renders the person more wretched than the object he contemplates , while from the nature of exercise this must be felt on every succeeding occasion with accumulated poignancy : and if the misfortunes of
others have such effect , we may reasonably suppose even a small degree of personal pain will be scarcely tolerable . When that tyrant-passion fear is much employed b 3 ' tales of departed spirits , ghosts , witches , & c . it degenerates into superstition , one of the greatest calamities that can befal poor human nature ; often defying the utmost pains and care taken to eradicate it , and while
unremoved , nothing in the . world can bestow happiness . Some of those beautiful lines Thomson has used to describe the effect of absence , seem particularly applicable , especially at night : What fantastic scenes arous'd Rage in each thought , by musing fancy fed , ' Chill the warm checkand blast the bloom of life !
, Yon glorious arch Contracted bends into a dusky vault ! All nature fades extinct , whilst that alone Heard , felt , and seen , possesses ev'ry thought , Fills ev ' ry sense , and pants in ev'ry vein 1 Consequences like these must always arise where one passion is
suffered to predominate in a dangerous degree over the rest ; for where they exist in tolerably just proportion in the mind of a novel reader , they excite an agreeable but confused jumble of sensations , which though he can neither separate , describe , or even distinguish , he is nevertheless very much disposed to value himself upon * , herein resembling a butterfly , who in passing from flower to flower troubles not himself to account for its nature , or useit be'ing sufficient for him
, if it be sweet . Mr . Hume has written an essay to show what a desirable thing it would be to cultivate a sensibility to p leasure , and deaden it to the sense of pain ; but , beside that in order to the attainment of this ( in my opinion ) not-to-be-desired end , a narrow short-sighted passion of self-love must predominatethe thing seems
absolutelimpracti-, y cable . —Who that has not known sickness can properly enjoy health ? Does not our emerging from a dismal night , marked with storms , wrecks , and devastation , render morning a thousand times more welcome and more lovely ? Or who hugs liberty so closely to his bosom , or knows the value of his prize so well , as the man who has lately escaped from tlie horrors of a dungeon ? Take away contrast ,
and 3 * ou reduce pleasure to a very insipid thing indeed . It has very frequently been asked , whether it be an advantage to possess sensibility or not . Poets feel a subtle and refined pleasure in describing w ' tiat , according to them , may vivy well be called tho charms of apathy ; and they saj * of Dr . Johnson , or he has said oi 3 D 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Select Papers On Various Subjects, Read Before A Literary Society In London.
not barren-and unproductive ; on the contrary , it calls up a thousand others which before laid dormant ; these operating on each other produce such sensibility as , unless relieved b 3 * the removal of the cause , or superseded by another state of mind of greater urgency , renders the person more wretched than the object he contemplates , while from the nature of exercise this must be felt on every succeeding occasion with accumulated poignancy : and if the misfortunes of
others have such effect , we may reasonably suppose even a small degree of personal pain will be scarcely tolerable . When that tyrant-passion fear is much employed b 3 ' tales of departed spirits , ghosts , witches , & c . it degenerates into superstition , one of the greatest calamities that can befal poor human nature ; often defying the utmost pains and care taken to eradicate it , and while
unremoved , nothing in the . world can bestow happiness . Some of those beautiful lines Thomson has used to describe the effect of absence , seem particularly applicable , especially at night : What fantastic scenes arous'd Rage in each thought , by musing fancy fed , ' Chill the warm checkand blast the bloom of life !
, Yon glorious arch Contracted bends into a dusky vault ! All nature fades extinct , whilst that alone Heard , felt , and seen , possesses ev'ry thought , Fills ev ' ry sense , and pants in ev'ry vein 1 Consequences like these must always arise where one passion is
suffered to predominate in a dangerous degree over the rest ; for where they exist in tolerably just proportion in the mind of a novel reader , they excite an agreeable but confused jumble of sensations , which though he can neither separate , describe , or even distinguish , he is nevertheless very much disposed to value himself upon * , herein resembling a butterfly , who in passing from flower to flower troubles not himself to account for its nature , or useit be'ing sufficient for him
, if it be sweet . Mr . Hume has written an essay to show what a desirable thing it would be to cultivate a sensibility to p leasure , and deaden it to the sense of pain ; but , beside that in order to the attainment of this ( in my opinion ) not-to-be-desired end , a narrow short-sighted passion of self-love must predominatethe thing seems
absolutelimpracti-, y cable . —Who that has not known sickness can properly enjoy health ? Does not our emerging from a dismal night , marked with storms , wrecks , and devastation , render morning a thousand times more welcome and more lovely ? Or who hugs liberty so closely to his bosom , or knows the value of his prize so well , as the man who has lately escaped from tlie horrors of a dungeon ? Take away contrast ,
and 3 * ou reduce pleasure to a very insipid thing indeed . It has very frequently been asked , whether it be an advantage to possess sensibility or not . Poets feel a subtle and refined pleasure in describing w ' tiat , according to them , may vivy well be called tho charms of apathy ; and they saj * of Dr . Johnson , or he has said oi 3 D 2