ous, and a slave to sudden and violent passion; in the man of breeding we expect coolness, moderation, and self-command.

215. The emotions connected with risibility are a source of much amusement to persons of every age and condition. Wit and humour, when innocent, as they always may be and ought to be, enliven conversation, and endear human creatures to one another; and, when discreetly applied, may be of singular advantage in discountenancing vice and folly.

SECTION X.

Of Sympathy.

216. THERE is in our nature a tendency to participate in the pains and pleasures of others; so that their good is in some degree our good, and their evil our evil: the natural effect of which is, to unite men more closely to one another, by prompting them, even for their own sake, to relieve distress and promote happiness. This participation of the joys and sorrows of others may be termed sympathy, or fellow-feeling. Sympathy with distress is called compassion, or pity. Sympathy with the happiness of another has no particular name; but, when expressed in words to the happy person, is termed congratulation. Every

good man knows, that it is natural for him to rejoice with them who rejoice, and to weep with those that weep.

217. Even for some inanimate things we have a sort of tenderness, which, by a licentious figure of speech, might be called sympathy. To lose a staff which we have long walked with, or see in ruins a house where we had long lived happily, would give a slight concern, though the loss to us were a trifle, or nothing at all. We feel something like pity for the dead bodies of our friends, arising from the consideration of their being laid in the solitary grave, a prey to worms and reptiles; and yet we are sure that from that circumstance the dead can never suffer any thing. Towards the brute creation, who have feeling as well as we, though not in the same degree or kind, our sympathy is more rational, and indeed ought to be strong: 'A righteous man regardeth the life,' and is not insensible to the happiness, of his beast.'

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218. But our sympathy operates most powerfully towards our fellow-men; and, other circumstances being equal, is for the most part more or less powerful, according as they are more nearly, or more remotely, connected with us by kindred, by friendship, or by condition. With a friend, with a relation, or with a person of our own condition, we are more apt to sympathise, than with people of different circumstances or connections. If we were to be tried for our life, we should wish

to have a jury of our equals. He who has had the toothach or the gout, is more inclined to pity those who suffer from the same distempers, than that person is who never felt them.

219. We sometimes sympathize with another person in a case in which that person has little feeling of either good or evil. We blush at the rudeness of another man in company, even when he himself does not know that he is rude. We tremble for a mason standing on a high scaffold, though we have reason to believe he is in no danger, because custom has made it familiar to him. On these occasions, our fellow-feeling seems to arise, not from our opinion of what the other person suffers, but from our idea of what we ourselves should suffer if we were in his situation, with the same habits and of reflection which we have at present. powers 220. Our fellow-feeling is never thoroughly roused, till we know something of the nature and cause of that happiness or misery which is the occasion of it for till this be known, we cannot so easily imagine ourselves in the condition of the happy or unhappy person. When we meet with one in distress, where the cause is not apparent, we are uneasy indeed, but the pain is not so great, or at least not so definite, as it comes to be when he has answered this question,-what is the matter with you? which is always the first question we ask on such occasions. And then our sympathy is in proportion to what we think he feels, or per

haps to what we may think it reasonable that he should feel.

221. Many of our passions may be communicated or strengthened by sympathy. In a cheerful company we become cheerful, and melancholy in a sad one. The presence of a multitude employed in devotion tends to make us devout; the timorous have acted valiantly in the society of the valiant; and the cowardice of a few has struck a panic into an army. In a historical or fabulous narrative, we sympathise with our favourite personages in those emotions of gratitude, joy, indignation, or sorrow, which we suppose would naturally arise in them from the circumstances of their fortune. Passions, however, that are unnatural, as envy, jealousy, avarice, malice; or unreasonably violent, as rage and revenge, we are not apt to sympathise with; we rather take part with the persons who may seem to be in danger from them, because we can more easily suppose ourselves in their condition.

222. Nor do we readily sympathise with passions. which we disapprove, or have not experienced. It is, therefore, a matter of prudence in poets, and other writers of fiction, to contrive such characters and incidents, as the greater part of their readers may be supposed to sympathise with, and be interested in. And it is their duty to cherish, by means of sympathy, in those who read them, those affections only which invigorate the mind,

and are favourable to virtue; as patriotism, valour, benevolence, piety, and the conjugal, parental, and filial charities. Scenes of exquisite distress, too long continued, enervate and overwhelm the soul: and those representations are still more blameable, and cannot be too much blamed, which kindle licentious passion, or promote indolence, affectation, or sensuality. Of the multitudes of novels now published, it is astonishing and most provoking to consider, how few are not chargeable with one or other of these faults, or with them all in conjunction. But immoral or extravagant novels would not be brought to market, nor of course written, if from the buyers of such things there were not a demand for extravagance and immorality.

223. Let us cherish sympathy. By attention and exercise it may be improved in every man. It prepares the mind for receiving the impressions of virtue; and without it there can be no true politeness. Nothing is more odious, than that insensibility, which wraps a man up in himself and his own concerns, and prevents his being moved with either the joys or the sorrows of another. This inhuman temper, however common, seems not to be natural to the soul of man, but to derive its origin from evil habits of levity, selfishness, or pride; and will therefore be easily avoided by those who cultivate the opposite habits of generosity, humility, and good-nature. Of these ami