CANTO iv. OF GOOD AND EVIL. 137 



E'en o'er the grave a deeper shadow flings, 



And maddening Conscience darts a thousand stings. 



" There writhing Mania sits on Reason's throne, 

 Or Melancholy marks it for her own, QQ: 



Sheds o'er the scene a voluntary gloom, 

 Requests oblivion, and demands the tomb. 

 And last Association's trains suggest 

 Ideal ills, that harrow up the breast,. 



E'en over the grave, 1. 87. Many theatric preachers among the 

 Methodists successfully inculcate the fear of death and of Hell, and 

 live luxuriously on the folly of their hearers : those who suffer under 

 this insanity, are generally most innocent and harmless people, who 

 are then liable to accuse themselves of the greatest imaginary crimes; 

 and have so much intellectual cowardice, that they dare not reason 

 about those things, which they are directed by their priests to believe. 

 Where this intellectual cowardice is great, the voice of reason is in- 

 effectual; but that of ridicule may save many from these mad-mak- 

 ing doctors, as the farces of Mr. Foot; though it is too weak to cure 

 those who are already hallucinated. 



And last association, 1. 93. The miseries and the felicities of life may 

 he divided into those which arise in consequence of irritation, sen- 

 sation, volition, and association; and consist in the actions of the 

 extremities of the nerves of sense, which constitute our ideas; if 

 they are much more exerted than usual, or much less exerted than : 

 usual, they occasion pain; as when the finger is burnt in a candle; or 

 when we go into a cold bath: while their natural degree of exertion, 



T\ 



