Thus it is, that the refpect and esteem, which the great, the powerful, the opulent, naturally command, are in fome measure communicated to their drefs, to their manners, and to all their connections: and it is this communication of properties, which prevailing even over the natural taste of beauty, helps to give currency to what is called the fashion.

By means of the fame eafinefs of communication, every bad quality in an enemy is spread upon all his connections. The fentence pronounced against Ravaillac for the affaffination of Henry IV. of France, ordains, that the house in which he was born fhould be razed to the ground, and that no other building fhould ever be erected on that spot. A relation more flight and tranfitory than that of enmity, may have the fame effect: thus the bearer of bad tidings becomes an object of averfion :

Fellow, begone; I cannot brook thy fight;
This news hath made thee a most ugly man.

King John, act 3. fc. 1.

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a lofing office: and his tongue,
Sounds ever after, as a fullen bell
Remember'd, tolling a departing friend.

Second part, Henry IV. a& 1. sc. 3.

From the account given above of this delicate mental operation, and from the examples there

produced,

produced, it will be evident, that the properties thus communicated to a related object, myft be fuch as warm the mind and enliven the imagination. Thus the beauty of a miftrefs, which inflames the imagination, is readily communicated to a glove, as above mentioned; but the greatest beauty a glove is fufceptible of, touches the mind fo little, as to be entirely dropped in paffing from it to the owner. And in general it may be obferved, that any drefs upon a fine woman is becoming; but that the most elegant ornaments upon one who is homely, have fcarce any effect to mend her appearance *.

The emotions produced as above may properly be termed fecondary, being occafioned either by antecedent emotions or antecedent paffions, which in this refpect may be termed primary. And to complete the prefent theory, I must add, that a fecondary emotion may readily fwell into a paffion for the acceffory object, provided the acceffory be a proper object for defire. Thus it happens that one paffion is often productive of another examples are without number; the fole

!

* A house and gardens furrounded with pleasant fields, all in good order, beftow greater luftre upon the owner than at first will be imagined. The beauties of the former are, by intimacy of connection, readily communicated to the latter: and if it be the work of the owner himself, we naturally tran fer to him whatever of defign, art, or tafte, appears in the performance. Should not this be a ftrong motive with proprietors to embellifh and improve their fields?

difficulty

difficulty is a proper choice. I begin with felflove, and the power it hath to generate love to children. Every man, befide making part of a greater fyftem, like a comet, a planet, or fatellite only, hath a less fyftem of his own, in the centre of which he reprefents the fun darting his fire and heat all around; especially upon his neareft connections: the connection between a man and his children, fundamentally that of caufe and effect, becomes, by the addition of other circumftances, the completest that can be among individuals; and therefore felf-love, the moft vigorous of all paffions, is readily expanded upon children. The fecondary emotion they produce by means of their connection, is fufficiently ftrong to move defire even from the beginning; and the new paffion fwells by degrees, till it rival in fome meafure felf-love, the primary paffion. To demonftrate the truth of this theory, I urge the following argument. Remorfe for betraying a friend, or murdering an enemy in cold blood, makes a man even hate himself: in this ftate, it is a matter of experience, that he is fcarce conscious of any affection to his children, but rather of difguft or ill-will. What caufe can be affigned for this change, other than the hatred which beginning at himfelf, is expanded upon his children? And if fo, may we not with equal reafon derive from felf-love, fome part at least of the affection a man generally has to them?

The affection a man bears to his blood-relations,

depends

depends partly on the fame principle: felf-love is alfo expanded upon them; and the communicated paffion, is more or lefs vigorous in proportion to the degree of connection. Nor doth felf-love reft here it is, by the force of connection, communicated even to things inanimate: and hence the affection a man bears to his property, and to every thing he calls his own.

Friendship, less vigorous than felf-love, is, for that reafon, lefs apt to communicate itself to my friend's children or other relations. Inftances however are not wanting, of fuch communicated paffion arising from friendship when it is strong. Friendship may go higher in the matrimonial state than in any other condition: and Otway, in Venice preferv'd, fhows a fine taste in taking advantage of that circumftance: in the scene where Belvidera fues to her father for pardon, fhe is represented as pleading her mother's merit, and the refemblance fhe bore to her mother:

Priuli. My daughter!

Belvidera. Yes, your daughter, by a mother
Virtuous and noble, faithful to your honour,
Obedient to your will, kind to your wishes,
Dear to your arms. By all the joys fhe gave you
When in her blooming years she was your treasure,
Look kindly on me; in my face behold
The lineaments of hers y' have kiss'd so often,
Pleading the cause of your poor caft-off child.

And

And again,

Belvidera. Lay me, I beg you, lay me

By the dear afhes of my tender mother:

She would have pitied me, had fate yet fpar'd her...
Act 5.fc. 1.

This explains why any meritorious action or any illuftrious qualification in my fon or my friend, is apt to make me overvalue myfelf: if I value my friend's wife or fon upon account of their connection with him, it is ftill more natural that I fhould value myfelf upon account of my con

nection with him.

Friendship, or any other focial affection, may produce opposite effects. Pity, by interesting us ftrongly for the perfon in diftrefs, muft of confequence inflame our refentment against the author of the distress: for, in general, the affection we have for any man, generates in us good-will to his friends, and ill-will to his enemies. Shakespear fhows great art in the funeral oration pronounced by Antony over the body of Cæfar. He first endeavours to excite grief in the hearers, by dwelling upon the deplorable lofs of fo great a man: this paffion, interesting them ftrongly in Cæfar's fate, could not fail to produce a lively fenfe of the treachery and cruelty of the confpirators; an infallible method to inflame the refentment of the people beyond all bounds!

VOL. I.

E

Antony.