from contemplating Scenes of Di/lrefs, 147 
than from any defcription becaufe the comparifon 
of ourfelves with the fufferer would be more 
vivid, and confequently, the feeling more intenfe. 
I would only obferve, that the caufe which he 
affigns for this pleafure, is the very fame with that 
afligned by Lucretius, in our motto. Mr. Addifon 
applies it to the defcription \ the Poet, to th eaftual 
contemplation , of affeCting fcenes. In both, the 
pleafure is fuppofed to originate in felfifhnefse 
But, wherever the focial paflions are deeply in- 
terefted, as they are here fuppofed to be, from the 
pathetic defcription , or the (till more pathetic purvey , 
of the fufferings of another, the fympathetic 
feelings will, of themfelves, at once, and previous 
to all reflection, become a fource of agreeable and 
tender emotions. They will thus dignify and 
enhance the fatisfaCtion, if any fuch be felt, arifing 
merely from the confideration of our own perfonal 
fecurity. And the more entirely we enter into 
the fcene, by lofing all ideas of its being either 
paft, or fabulous, the more perfectly we forget 
ourfelves, and are abforbed in the feeling,—the 
more exquifite is the fenfation. 
But, as our fubfequent fpeculations will chiefly 
turn upon the pleafure derived from real fcenes of 
calamity, and not from thofe which are imaginary , 
it may be expected, that we adduce inftances, in 
proof that fuch pleafure is felt , by perfons very 
different in their tafte, and mental cultivation. 
L 2 I will 
