-INP CHARACTER OF THE PASSIONS. 



463 



m'e now taking of it, becomes an apt and beautiful type of every religious 

 affection ; of desire ; as love, gratitude, 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 imagination, 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 confineti himself in his celebrated ode upon 

 the subject. 



Thou to whom the world unknown, 

 With all its shadowy shapes, is shown ; 

 Who seest, appall'd, th' unrei-ii scene , 

 When fancy lifts the veil between, — 



Ah, Fear ! ah, frantic Ff.ar ! 



I see, I see thee near. 

 I know thy iiurried step, thy haggard eye : 

 Like thee I start, like thee disurderM fly. 



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

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

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

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

 commences early, and often accompanies us to the closing scene of life. 

 It inspirits 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 emu- 

 lation, instead of being coimected with the social, is often connected with 

 the selfish affections ; and in this case it degenerates into rivalry, an un- 

 generous 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 de- 

 sire, 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 scorn'd 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 

 denominated rage or fury ; and, when stimulated by a determination to 

 retahate, it assumes the name and shape of revenge. Hatred is only aver- 

 sion advanced to a higher degree in the scale ; and hatred, colleagued 



