3i* " DISEASES CLASS III. i. 2. n. 



ing elfe but her dear children. But di.^1 not for many years, 

 even to her dying hour, get quite over a gloom, which was left 

 upon her countenance. 



In violent grief, when tears flow, it is efteemed a good fymp- 

 tom ; becaufe then the actions caufed by fenfitive aflbciation take 

 the place of thofe caufed by volition ; that is, they prevent the 

 voluntary exertions of ideas, or mufcular actions, which confti- 

 tute infanity. 



The fobbing and fighing attendant upon grief are not convul- 

 five movements, they are occafioned by the fenforial power be- 

 ing fo expended on the painful ideas, and their connections, 

 that the perfon neglects to breathe for a time, and then a vio- 

 lent figh or fob is neceflary to carry on the blood, which opprefles 

 the pulmonary veflels, which is then performed by deep or quick 

 infpirations, and laborious expirations. Sometimes neverthelefs 

 the breath is probably for a while voluntarily held, as an effort to 

 relieve pain. The palenefs and ill health occafioned by long 

 grief are fpoken of in Clafs IV. 2. 1.9. 



The melioration of grief by time, and its being at length even 

 attended with pleafure, depends on our retaining a diftinct idea 

 of the loft object:, and forgetting for a time the idea of the lofs 

 of it. This pleafure of grief is beautifully defcribed by Aken- 

 fide. Pleafures of Imagination, Book II. 1. 680. 



-Afk the faithful youth, 



Why the cold urn of her, whom long he loved, 



So often fills his arms ; fo often draws 



His lonely fooriieps at the lilent hour 



To pay the mournful tribute of his tears ? 



Oh ! he will tell thee, that the wealth of worlds 



Should ne'er fcduce his bofom to forego 



That facred hour ; when, Healing from the noife 



Of care and envy, fweet remembrance foothes 



With Virtue's kindeft looks his aching breaft, 



And turns his tears to rapture. 



M. M. Confolation is beft fupplied by tfye Chriftian doctrine 

 of a happy immortality. In the Pagan religion the power of 

 dying was the great confolation in irremediable diftrefs. Seneca 

 fays, u no one need be unhappy unlefs by his own fault." Arid 

 the author of Telemachus begins his work by faying, that Ca- 

 lypfo could not confole herfelf for the lofs of Ulyfles, and found 

 herfelf unhappy in being immortal. In the firft hours of grief 

 the method of confolation ufed by uncle Toby, in Triftram 

 Shandy, is probably the beft ; " he fat down in an arm chair by 

 the bed of his diitrelied friend, and faid nothing." 



11. tadsitm vita. Ennui. Irkfomenefs of life. The inani- 

 ty of fublunary things has afforded a theme to philofophers, 



nioralifts, 



I 



