the purpose. But when a paffion fwells high, it is not satisfied with fo flight a gra tification it must have a perfon to complain to; and if none be found, it will animate things devoid of fenfe. Thus Philoctetes complains to the rocks and promontories of the isle of Lemnos *; and Alceftes dying, invokes the fun, the light of day, the clouds, the earth, her husband's palace, &c. . Plaintive paffions carry the mind still farther. Among the many principles that connect individuals in fociety, one is remarkable it is that principle which makes us earnestly wish, that others fhould enter into our concerns and think and feel as we do. This social principle, when inflamed by a plaintive paffion, will, for want of a more complete gratification, prompt the mind to give life even to things inanimate. Mofchus, lamenting the death of Bion, conceives that the birds, the fountains, the trees, lament with him. The fhepherd,

*Philoctetes of Sophocles, act 4. fc. 2.

+ Alceftes of Euripides, act 2. fc. 1.

See this principle accounted for, chap. 25.

VOL. III.

H

who

who in Virgil bewails the death of Daphnis, expreffeth himself thus:

Daphni, tuum Poenos etiam ingemuiffe leones Interitum, montefque feri fylvæque loquuntur.

Again,

Eclogue v. 27.

Illum etiam lauri, illum etiam flevere myricæ.
Pinifer illum etiam fola fub rupe jacentem

Mænalus, et gelidi fleverunt faxa Lycæi.

Again,

Ho visto al pianto mio

Eclogue x. 13.

Refponder per pietate i faffi e l'onde;

E fofpirar le fronde

Ho visto al pianto mio.

Ma non ho viflo mai,

Ne fpero di vedere

Compaffion ne la crudele, e bella.

Aminta di Taffo, aɛt 1. sc. 2.

Earl Rivers carried to execution, fays,

O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,
Fatal and ominous to Noble peers!

Within the guilty clofure of thy walls

Richard the Second, here, was hack'd to death;

And,

And, for more flander to thy difmal feat,
We give to thee our guiltlefs blood to drink.
Richard III. at 3. Sc. 4.

.

King Richard having got intelligence of Bolingbroke's invafion, fays, upon his landing in England from his Irifh expedition, in a mixture of joy and refentment,

I weep for joy

To ftand upon my kingdom once again.
Dear earth, I do falute thee with my hand,
Though rebels wound thee with their horses hoofs.
As a long parted mother with her child

Plays fondly with her tears, and fmiles in meeting;

So weeping, fmiling, greet I thee my earth,
And do thee favour with my royal hands.
Feed not thy fovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
Nor with thy fweets comfort his rav'nous fense:
But let thy fpiders that fuck up thy venom,
And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way;
Doing annoyance to the treach'rous feet,
Which with ufurping fteps do trample thee.
Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
And, when they from thy bofom pluck a flower,
Guard it, I pr'ythee, with a lurking adder;
Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch

Throw death upon thy fovereign's enemies.
Mock not my fenfelefs conjuration, Lords:
This earth fhall have a feeling; and these stones
Prove armed foldiers, ere her native king

Shall faulter under foul rebellious arms.

Richard IL at 3. fc. 2.

Among the ancients, it was cuftomary after a long voyage to falute the natal foil. A long voyage, was of old a greater enterprife than at prefent: the fafe return to one's country after much fatigue and danger, was a circumftance extremely delightful and it was natural to give the natal foil a temporary life, in order to fympathife with the traveller. See an example, Agamemnon of Æfchilus, act 3. in the beginning. Regret for leaving a place one has been accustomed to, has the fame effect *.

Terror produceth the fame effect. A man, to gratify this paffion, extends it to every thing around, even to things inani

mate:

Speaking of Polyphemus,

Clamorem immenfum tollit, quo pontus et omnes

Philoctetes of Sophocles, at the clofe.

Intremuere

Intremuere undæ penitufque exterrita tellus

Italiæ.

Eneid, iii. 672.

As when old Ocean roars,

And heaves huge furges to the trembling fhores.

Iliad ii. 249.

And thund'ring footsteps bake the founding fhore.

Iliad ii. 549.

Then with a voice that book the vaulted skies. Iliad v. 431

Racine, in the tragedy of Phedra, defcribing the fea-monster that destroy'd Hippolitus, conceives the fea itself to be infpired with terror as well as the fpectators; or more accurately transfers from the fpectators their terror to the fea, with which they were connected :

Le flot qui l' apporta recule epouvanté,

A man also naturally communicates his joy to all objects around, animate or inani

mate:

As when to them who fail

Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past

Mozambic,