412 



ON THE ORIGIN, CONNEXION, 



This extravagant passion had its use in the feudal times ; but it has for ages 

 become antiquated, and in modern warfare has certainly too much gone out 

 of fashion. 



To the same tribe belongs enthusiasm, the joyous or ecstatic devotion of a 

 high-wrought fancy to some particular cause or party, the chief of which are 

 religion and patriotism : and under the influence of which, the body is wound 

 up to a display of almost preternatural exploits, and an endurance of almost 

 miraculous privations and labour. 



The sprightly passion of joy gives birth also to a third tribe, in consequence 

 of its union with novelty. It is a listening and attentive group, and consists 

 of admiration, surprise, wonder, and astonishment: upon which I need not 

 enlarge, except to remark that the word astonishment is, at times, made use 

 of to express a very different feeling, produced by novelty and terror ; and 

 which is more accurately distinguished by the name of amazement. These 

 mixed passions, however, are very apt to run into each other, as I shall have 

 occasion to notice more at large in a subsequent study : and perhaps the 

 most exquisite feeling a man can possess of the purely mental kind, is de- 

 rived from a contemplation of scenery, or a perusal of history, where every 

 thing around him is grand, majestic, and marvellous, and the terrible keeps 

 an equal, or rather nearly an equal pace with the delightful. 



The opposite of joy is sorrow — a fruitful mother of hideous and unwelcome 

 children : fruitful I mean on earth, but shut out with a wall of adamant from 

 the purer regions of the skies. 



Sorrow is as much distinguished by different names as any of the preced- 

 ing affections, according to the height it reaches in the general scale of evil. 

 And hence, at one point, it is sadness ; at another, wo or misery ; at a third, 

 anguish ; and at its extreme verge, distraction or despair. 



Connected with a sense of something lost, or beyond our reach, it gives 

 rise to regret and grief; and when in union with a feeling of guilt, it becomes 

 remorse and repentance. 



Its two bosom companions, however, are fear and fancy. When allied to 

 the former alone, it produces the haggard progeny of care, anxiety, vexation, 

 and fretfulness ; the first of which is thus admirably described by Hawkes- 

 worth, in his ingenious but melancholy piece, entitled Life, an Ode : in which 

 care is directly stated, as in the present case, to be a mixed breed of wo or 

 sorrow and fear. 



Who art thou, with anxious mien 

 Stealing o'er the siiiftiii^' scene ? 

 Eyes Willi tedious vigils red, 

 Sighs by doubts and wishes bred ; 

 Cautious step and glancing iepr, 

 Speak thy woes, and speak thy fear. 



When sorrow associates herself with both fear and fancy, she then produces 

 the demon brood of dejection, gloom, vapours, moroseness, heaviness, and 

 melancholy ; all of them begotten, like the last, 



In Stygian cave forlorn, 

 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy. 



Such is the origin of melancholy, as given by Milton, in his Allegro, or Ode 

 to Mirth ; but in his Penseroso, or Ode to Melancholy herself, he derives her 

 from a purer source, and dresses her in the pensive character of a religious 

 recluse. The picture shows a fine imagination ; but is, perhaps, less true to 

 nature than the preceding. 



Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, 

 Sober, steadfast, and demure, 

 All in a robe of daikesl grain, 

 Flowing with majestic train, 

 And sable stole of cypress lawn 

 Over thy decent shoulders drawn— 



