154 Dr. Barnes on the Pleafures fometimes felt 
thought is amiable. The conclufion noble. But 
ftill the folution appears to me to be imperfect. 
We have already faid, that the pleafure arifing 
from the contemplation of diftrefsful fcenes is a 
compounded feeling , arifing from feveral diftindt 
fources in the human bread:. The kind and 
degree of the fenfation mud: depend upon the 
various blendings of the feveral ingredients, 
which enter into the compofition. The caufe 
afdgned by Mr. Addifon, the fenfe of our own 
fecurity, may be fuppofed to have fome fliare in 
the mafs of feelings. That of Dr. Akenfide may 
be allowed to have a ftill larger proportion;—Let 
us attempt to trace fome of the reft. 
There are few principles in human nature of 
more general and important induence, than 
that of sympathy. A late ingenious writer, 
led by the fadiionable idea of Amplifying all the 
fprings of human nature into one fource, has, in 
his beautiful Theory of Moral Sentiments, en¬ 
deavoured to analyfe a very large number of the 
feelings of the heart into fympathetic vibration. 
Though it appears to me mod: probable, that the 
human mind, like the human body, poflefies va¬ 
rious and diJHnft fprings, of adtion and of happi- 
nefs, yet he has (hewn, in an amazing diverfity of 
inftances, the operation and importance of this 
principle of human nature. Let us apply it to 
our prefent fubjedt. 
We 
