from contemplating Scenes of Dijlrefs. 157 
all, when felt at the fame moment, heighten and 
increafe each other. Eafe fucceeding pain, cer¬ 
tainty after fufpenfe, friendfnip after averfion, 
are unfpeakably itronger, than if they had not 
been thus contrafted. In this conflict of feelings, 
the mind rifes from pajjrve to aftive energy. It 
is roufed to intenfe lenfation; and it enjoys 
that peculiar, exquifite, and complex feeling, in 
which, as in many articles of our table, the acid 
and the fweet, the pleafurable and painful pun¬ 
gencies are fo happily mixed together, as to 
render the united fenfation amazingly more 
ftrong and delightful. 
We have not yet mentioned the principle of 
curiosity, that bufy and adive power, which 
appears fo early, continues almoft unimpaired 
fo long , and to which, for the wifeft: ends, is 
annexed fo great a fenfe of enjoyment. To this 
principle, rather than to a love of cruelty, would 
I afcribe that pleafure, which children fometimes 
feem to feel, from torturing hies, and leffer 
animals. They have not yet formed an idea of the 
pain they inflid. It is, indeed, of unfpeakable 
confequence, that this pradice be checked, as 
foon and as efredually as pofiible, becaule it 
is fo important, that they learn to conned the 
ideas of pleafure and pain, with the motions 
and adions of the animal creation. And, to this 
principle may we alfo refer, no fmall fhare of 
that pleafure in the contemplation of diftrefsful 
fcenes, 
