410 



ON THE ORIGIN, CONNEXION, 



than that which springs during its infancy. Combined with a sense of failure 

 or imperfection in our own powers, it takes a right direction, and produces 

 caution, timidity, bashfuhiess, diffidence, respect, and complaisance : united 

 to friendship, love, or complacency, it engenders gratitude, devotion, reverence, 

 veneration, and awe, which are only difterent degrees of the same feeling: 

 and hence the term fear, in the sense we are now taking of it, becomes an 

 apt and beautiful type of every religious affection ; of desire ; as love, grati- 

 tude, zeal, devotion, and awe; for we have just traced it as branching up in 

 this direct line of descent. 



The connexions of fear, moreover, like those of hope, are of a bad as well 

 as of a good character : united to a judgment that measures its powers amiss, 

 and entertains too mean an opinion of them, it degenerates into irresolution, 

 doubt, cowardice, and pusillanimity : combined with a restless and irritable ima- 

 gination, it begets suspicion, jealousy, dread, terror; and terror, when combined 

 with hate, gives birth to the passion of horror. It is in this last character, as 

 connected with the fancy or imagination, that the term fear is for the most 

 part employed by the dramatists ; and it is to this that Collins has entirely 

 confined himself in his celebrated ode upon the subject. 



Thou to whom the world unknown. 

 With all its shadowy shapes, is shown ; 

 ' Who seesi, appall'd, th' unreal scene 



When Fancy lifts the veil between, — 

 Ah, Fear ! all, frantic Fear ! 

 I see, I see thee near. 

 I know thy Imrried step, thy haggard eye : 

 Lilie thee I start, like thee disorder'd fly. 



The third main passion which issues from the common stock of desire, 1 

 have said, is emulation. This, when properly attempered, and connected 

 with what have already appeared to be the social affections, is one of the 

 noblest and most valuable emotions that actuates the human heart. It com- 

 mences early, and often accompanies us to the closing scene of life. It in- 

 spirits the play of the infant, the task of the schoolboy, and the busy career 

 of the man. It gives health and vigour to the first, applause and distinction 

 to the second, and riches and honour to the third. But emulation, instead of 

 being connected with the social, is often connected with the selfish affections ; 

 and in this case it degenerates into rivalry, an ungenerous strife to equal or 

 surpass a competitor where there is a chance of success; or into envy, which 

 is a mixture of emulation and hatred, where there is not. 



The antagonist passion to desire is aversion, which has also, like desire, 

 different degrees of intensity, and a family of diversified characters, though 

 in neither respect so numerous or complicated as the former. 



It not unfrequently unites itself to pride, and produces, as its progeny, the 

 jaundiced family of scorn, contempt, and disdain; the last of which is thus 

 described by Spenser : — 



His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes, 

 Like two great beacons, glared far and wide, 

 Glancing askew, as if his enemies 

 He scorned in his overweening pride; 

 And stalking stately, like a crane did stride 

 At every step upon the tip-toes high ; 

 And all the way he went, on every side 

 He gazed about, and stared horribly 

 As if he, with his looks, all men would terrify. 



Aversion, combined with a quick sense of being wronged, whether real or 

 imaginary, becomes anger; anger, when violent or ungovernable, is denomi- 

 nated rage or fury ; and, when stimulated by a determination to retaliate, it 

 assumes the name and shape of revenge. Hatred is only aversion advanced 

 to a higher degree in the scale ; and hatred, colleagued with a fixed and clan- 

 destine desire to injure, degenerates into malice ; the foulest, most despicable, 

 and most devilish of all the passions that can harass an intelligent being", 

 and the most opposite to the character of the Divinity ; for God is love, and 

 the stamp of benevolence is imprinted on every part of creation. 



