STUDY XII. ^I 



conduâ: it over a vaft field of ideas. It is to thefc 

 fuppreffions that the fable of the Nightingale is 

 indebted for the powerful effedt which it produces. 

 Add to thefe a multitude of other oppofitions, 

 which I have not leifure to analyze. 



The farther that the phyfical image is removed 

 from us, the greater extenfion is given to the mo- 

 ral fentiment ; and the more circumfcribed the 

 firft is, the more energetic the fentiment is ren- 

 dered. It is this, undoubtedly, which communi- 

 cates fo much force to our affecflions, when we re- 

 gret the death of a friend. Grief, m this cafe, con- 

 veys the foul from one World to the other, and 

 from an objed: full of charms to a tomb. Hence 

 it is, that the following paflage from Jeremiah con~ 

 tains a ftrain of fublime melancholy : Fox in Rama 

 audita eft ; ploratus y ululatus multus : Rachel plorans 

 fiUos fuoSj y noluit confolari, quia non Junt. " A 

 " voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and 

 " bitter weeping ; Rachel weeping for her chil» 

 *' dren, refufed to be comforted for her children, 

 ^* becaufe they were not *." All the confolations 

 which this World can adminifter, are dalhed to 

 pieces againft this word of maternal anguifh, ,non 

 funty 



* Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15. 



F 4 The 



