ON PATHOGNOMY; OR 



nately softens and stiftens. This general remark will apply to grief, pain, 

 and agony ; rage, suspicion, and jealousy ; horror, despair, and madness ; 

 though, as I have formerly observed, this last affection cannot with strict 

 propriety be introduced among the passions, being a mental disease rather 

 than a mental emotion. 



Let me justify this remark by a few illustrations. " A man in great 

 PAIN," observes Mr. Burke, "has his teeth set; his eyebrows are vio- 

 lently contracted ; his forehead is wrinkled ; his eyes are dragged inwards, 

 and rolled with great vehemence ; his hair stands on end ; his voice is 

 forced out in short shrieks and groans ; and the whole fabric totters."* 



InGKiEF, there is still more violence and tension, though the tension is 

 irregular and alternating. Where the grief is of long continuance, and 

 deeply rooted, it gives a pale and melancholy cast to the countenance ; an 

 air of reserve to the manner ; and an emaciation to the entire form ; as 

 though the sad sufferer were fondly nursing the viper passion that devours 

 his bosom. Such is the exquisite description of Viola, as given of herself 

 in the Twelfth Night :— 



She never told her love, 

 But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud, 

 Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought ; 

 And, with a green and yellow melancholy, 

 She sat like patience on a monument, 

 Smiling at grief. 



At other times, the passion is characterized by a mingled tumult of agita - 

 tion, restlessness, and bitter bewailing. Such is the general picture of 

 Constance, in King John ; who thus, among other exclamations, weeps 

 over the ill-fated Prince Arthur : — 



Grief fills the room up of my absent child ; ' 

 Lies on his bed ; walks up and down with me ; 

 Puts on his pretty looks ; repeats his words ; 

 Remembers me of all his gracious parts : 

 Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form : 

 ■ — Then have I reason to be fond of grief. 



In EAGE, there is the same tension, but the same irregular agitation oi 

 the muscles. " The features," as Mr. Bell justly observes, " are unsteady ; 

 the eyeballs are seen largely ; they roll, and are inflated. The front is 

 alternately knit and raised in furrows, by the motion of the eye-brows ; 

 the nostrils are inflated to the utmost ; the lips are swelled, and, being 

 drawn, open the corners of the mouth ;t the muscles are strongly marked. 

 The whole visage is sometimes pale, sometimes inflated, dark, and almost 

 livid ; the words are delivered strongly through the fixed teeth ; the hair 

 is fixed on end, like one distracted ; and every joint should seem to curse 

 and ban." Perhaps the finest picture of this mighty passion ever pre- 

 sented to the world, is to be found in Tasso's description of the combat 

 between Tancred and Argante : but it is too long for quotation, and 

 W(Suld lose half its spirit if given in any other language than the original. 



It is in the features of rage that the higher kinds of quadrupeds make 

 the nearest approach to this form of expression in man. The bull terribly 

 denotes it. by his inflamed eye, wide and breathing nostrils, and the prone 



* Sublime and Beautiful, part iv. sec. 3. Cause of Pain and Fear, 

 t Anatomy of Painting, p. 139. 



