AND CHARACTER OP THE PASSIONS. 



I 



friend or relation, in whom he had concentrated all his hopes. The well- 

 known picture of Beverley is drawn by the hand of a master, and he is 

 represented as maddened by the thought of the deep distress into which 

 his last hazard had plunged his wife and family ; but if his selfish love of 

 gaming had not triumpiied over his relative love for those he had thus 

 ruined, he would not have been involved in any such reverse of fortune ; 

 nor, without the same selfishness, would he further have added to their 

 blow by a deed that was sure to withdraw him for ever from all share in 

 their misery, and overwhelm them with an accumulated shock. While 

 Beverley was in despair, it was his wife who was broken-hearted.* 



The picture which Spenser has drawn of despair, as seated in his own 

 wretched cave, has been praised by every one from the time of Sir Philip 

 Sidney ; but it has always appeared to me that his description of Sir Tre- 

 visan, who was fortunate enough to escape from the enchantment of this 

 demon-power, is still more forcibly drawn in the passage where, on the 

 commencement of his flight, he is re|)resented as accidentally meeting 

 with the Red Cross Knight : 



He answered nought at all ; hut adding new 

 Feare to his first amazement, staring wyde 



With stony eyes, and hattless, hollow vew, • 

 Astonisht stood, as one that had aspyde 

 Infernall furies with their chaines untyde. 

 Him yett againe, and yett againe, bespake 

 The gentle Knight, who nought to him reply de ; 

 But, trembling every ioynt, did inly quake, 

 And foltring tongue at last these words seem'd forth to shake— 



"For God's dear love, sir Knight, doe me not stay j 

 For loe ! he comes, he comes fast after mee !" 

 Eft looking back, would faine have runne away 5 

 But he him forst to stay, and tellen free 

 The secrete cause of his perplexitie.| 



Such, as it appears to me, are the chief passions or faculties of emotion 

 discoverable in the human mind. 1 submit, however, the present analysis 

 and classification of them with some degree of diffidence ; for, as far as I 

 am aware, it is the first attempt of the kind that has ever been ventured 

 upon ; and, like other first attempts, it may perhaps be open to the charge 

 of considerable imperfections and errors. Be this, however, as it may, it 

 at least oflJers us a new key to the mind's complicated construction in one 

 branch of its study, simphfies its machinery, and perhaps unfolds a few 

 springs which have never hitherto been sufliciently brought into public 

 view. 



I have said that the use of the passions is to furnish us with happiness, 

 as that of the intellectual faculties is with knowledge, and that of the facul- 

 ties of volition with freedom. But from the survey thus far taken, it must 

 be obvious to every one, that the passions furnish us with misery as well 

 as with happiness. And it may, perhaps, become a question with many, 

 whether the harvest of the former be not more abundant than that of the 

 latter. We cannot, therefore, close this subject better than by briefly in- 

 quiring whether the pass:. )ns' produce happiness at all ? Whether, allow- 

 ing the affirmative, they produce more happiness than misery, and whe- 

 ther the present constitution of things would be improved if those that 

 occasionally produce misery were to be banished from the list ? 



♦ Study of Medicine, vol. iv. p. 133. edit. 2d. 18S5 

 ^ Fame Queene. b. i. c. ix. 24, 25, 



