434 



ON PATHOGNOMY, OR 



Allow me to quote it somewhat more correct to the original than the render- 

 ing in our common version, which is, nevertheless, in the main, unexcep- 

 tionable : — 



Hast THOU bestowed on the horse mettle t 

 Hast thou clothed his neck with the thunder-flash? 

 Hast thou given him to launch forth as an arrow ? 

 Terrible is the pomp of his nostrils : 

 He paweth in the valley, and exulteth ; 

 Boldly he advanceth against ihe clashing host; 

 He mocketh at fear, and trembleih not; 

 . . " - Nor turneth he back from the sword. 



Against him rattleth the quiver, 



The glittering spear, and the shield: 



With rage and fury lie devoureth the ground, 



And is impatient when the trumpet soiiiideth. 



He exclaimelh among the trumpets, "Aha!" 



And scentelh the battle afar off, 



The thunder of the chieftains, and the shouting. 



Jealousy is a fitful, unsteady passion : but still the muscles are constantly 

 more or less on the stretch ; " the eyelid is fully lifted, and the eyebrows 

 strongly knit, so that the eyelid almost entirely disappears, and the eyeball 

 glares from under the bushy eyebrow. There is a general tension on the 

 muscles, which concentrate round the mouth ; and the lips are drawn so as to 

 show the teeth, as in great pain or fury. Much of the character of the passion, 

 however, consists in rapid vicissitudes from love to hate ; now absent, moody, 

 and distracted; now courting love ; now ferocious and revengeful. It is hence 

 difficult to represent it in painting. In poetry alone can it be truly repre- 

 sented in the vivid colours of nature ; and even of poets, Shakspeare, perhaps, 

 is the only one who has shown himself quite equal to the task."* It is thus 

 he describes the workings of Othello's heart, on his first crediting the slander 

 of the seduction of Desdemona by Cassio : — 



O that the slave had forty thousand lives ! 

 One is too poor, too weak, for my revenge. 

 Now do I see, 'tis iiue — look here, lago, — 

 All my fond love — thus do I blow to heaven. — 

 'T is gone. 



Arise, black Vengeance, from the hollow hell! 

 Yield up, O Love ! thy crown and hearted throne 

 To tyrannous Hate!— swell, bosom, with thy fraught 

 For 't is of aspics' tongues. 



The general expression and features of fear, Mr. Burke has compared to 

 those of severe pain. Mr. Charles Bell objects to this ; but Mr. Burke does 

 not mean simple fear, but terror ; which, as we observed in a former lecture, 

 is FEAR united to an active imag'j^ation ; and in this sense of the passion 

 Homer has frequently employed it : witness the emotion of Priam upon the 

 first tidings of the death of Hector : — f 



Terror and consternation at the sound 

 Thtill'd through all Priam's soul : erect his hair, 

 Bristled liis limbs, and with amaze he stood, 

 Mute and all motionless. 



The extreme of this kind of terror is distraction: the total wreck of hope, 

 the terrible assurance of utter and inextricable ruin. The expression of dis- 

 traction or despair must vary with the action of the distress. Sometimes it 

 will assume a frantic and bewildered air, as if madness were likely to afford 

 the only relief from mental agony. Sometimes there is at once a wildness in 

 the looks, and a total relaxation and impotency of the muscles, as if the 

 wretch were falling into insensibility ; a horrid gloom, and an immoveable 

 eye, while yet he hears nothing, he sees nothing, and is unconscious of every 

 thing around him. Such is the description of despair, as given in the well- 

 known passage of Spenser : — 



♦ Bell ut BuprA, p. 137. 



tll,lib.xxii.405. 



