460 



ON THE ORIGIN, CONNEXION, 



and lost. Keined in, therefore, and attempered, they constitute, as 1 have 

 already observed, our happiness ; but let loose and at random, they dis- 

 tract and ruin uis. 



How few, beneath auspicious planet born^ 



With swelling sails make good the promised port, 



With all their wishes freighted. Young. 



Let it not be forgotten, however, that the passions are not distinct 

 agents, but mere affections or emotions, mere states or conditions of the 

 mind, excited by an almost infinite variety of external objects and events, 

 or internal operations and feehngs. And here, the first remark that will 

 probably occur to us is, that, derived from sources thus numerous and 

 diversified, they must themselves form a numerous and motley host. Some 

 of them are simple, others complex ; some peculiar to certain circum- ' 

 stances or individuals, others general, and embracing ail countries and 

 conditions ; some possessing a natural tendency to promote what is 

 good ; and others, what is mischievous and evil ; while many of them, 

 again, though distinguished by separate names, only differ from other 

 passions in degree ; and hence, naturally merge into them upon a change 



the scale. 



It has often occurred to me, that if we were to follow up all the pas- 

 sions, multiplied and complicated as they are, to their radical sources, and 

 to draw out their respective genealogies, we might easily reduce them td 

 four — Desire, Aversion, Joy, and Sorrow. And as aversion and sorrow 

 are only the opposites of desire and joy, and must necessarily flow from 

 their existence in a state of things in which all we meet with is not to be 

 desired or enjoyed, it is possible that desire and joy ought alone to be re- 

 garded as the proper parent stocks of all the rest. Let us examine them 

 for a few minutes, under this system of simplification. 



Perhaps the oldest, simplest, and most universal passion that stirs the 

 mind of man, is Desire. So universal is it, that I may confidently ask, 

 where is the created bosom — nay, where is the created being, without it ? 

 And Dry den is fully within the mark in asserting, that 



Desire's the vast extent of human mind. 



Aversion, which is its opposite, is less universal, less simple, and of 

 later birth. It is less universal, for though there is no created being ex- 

 empt from it,, nor ought to be so upon certain points, it is more limited in 

 its objects and operation. It is of later date, at least among mankind, 

 for the infant desires before it dislikes ; and hence there is as much physi- 

 cal truth as picturesque genius in the following exhortation of Akenside. 

 to the lovers of taste and nature 



Through all the maze 

 Of YOUNG Desire, with rival steps pursue 

 The charm of beauty. 



And it is less simple, as being the opposite of desire, and in a certain 

 sense flowing from it, and connected with its existence ; the whole of its 

 empire being founded on objects and ideas that the eider passion of desire 

 has rejected. 



Now, the main streams that issue from desire, running in different di- 

 rections, and giving rise to multitudes of secondary streams, are the three 



