MOODS of FERBS. 231 



point of time ; like the adventure of the Sultan in the Arabian 

 Nights Entertainments, who, on dipping his head into water, 

 had a long and vexatious feries of adventures, for feven years, 

 as he thought, in the fhort fpace of time in which his head 

 was in the water. Even when we are awake, a voluntary 

 train of thought, efpecially when much connected with emo- 

 tion or paflion, is fometimes fo quick that we are unable to ex- 

 prefs it in words, or at leaft to do it any juftice in point of 

 quicknefs. Before we can exprefs even the hundredth part of 

 it, the reft of it is gone, and cannot be recalled but flowly, 

 and with much labour. We can often obferve, both in com- 

 mon converfation, and in public fpeaking, that a perfon hath 

 gone on much farther in thought than he has exprefTed in 

 words. Many people cannot tell to "any purpofe either a ludi- 

 crous or a pathetic ftory for laughing or weeping. The whole 

 train of thought rufhes on their minds fo quickly as to over- 

 power them with its full effect, before they have exprefTed 

 enough to let their hearers know any thing of it, nay fome- 

 times before they begin to fpeak. 



Format enim natura prius 110s intus ad omnem 

 Fortunarum habitant : juvat aut impellit ad tram, 

 Aut ad hutnum mcerore gravi deducit et angit : 

 Mox effert. animi motus interprets lingua. 



Some of the mod interefting modifications of thought, I 

 mean emotions and paffions, exprefs themfelves by natural 

 language, that is by the countenance, voice and geflure, al- 

 rnoft as quickly as they are conceived ; and when they are ex- 

 prefled in this way, they are not only well underftood by 

 others, but are often in fome meafure communicated to them* 

 For fuch is the nature of man, that, independently of all reli- 

 gious precepts, and of all moral confiderations, we are ftrongly, 

 and often irrefiftibly difpofed to rejoice with thofe that do re- 

 joice; 



