49^ OFOLDAGE 



he confidered that he ought to defend himfelf * 

 it is evident, therefore, that he felt no greater 

 pain than he would have fuffered from an ordi- 

 nary ftroke. This adion could not be the re- 

 fult of a mechanical impulfe; for I have IhewHj, 

 in the defcription of man, that the moft preci- 

 pitate movements of the paflions depend upon 

 refledion, and are nothing but habitual exer- 

 tions of the mind. 



I would not have dwelt fo long upon this 

 fubjed:, if I had not been anxious to eradicate a 

 prejudice fo repugnant to the happinefs of mam 

 I have feen many vidims faciificed to this pre- 

 judice, efpecially among the female fex, who 

 die daily through the terror of death. Such 

 dreadful apprehenfions feem peculiarly to affedt 

 thofe who, by nature or education, are endowed 

 with fuperior 3e!rfibility ; for the vulgar look 

 forward to their diflblution, either v»^lth indiffe- 

 rence, or, at leaft, without any degree of ter- 

 ror. 



True philofonhy views objects as they exift. 

 Our internal feelings would uniformly accord 

 with this philofophy, if they were not pervert- 

 ed by the illufions of imagination, and by the 

 unfortunate habit of creating hypothetical phan- 

 toms of excefhve pains, and of pleafurcs which 

 exceed the limits of human nature. Objeds 

 are only terrible or ravifhing at a diftance ; 

 when we have the refolution or the wifdom {q 

 take a near infpedioo of them, every alarmin*.^ 



and 



