492 



ON PATHOGNOMY, OK 



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

 hope, the terrible assurance of utter and inextricable ruin. The expression 

 of distraction or despair must vary with the action of the distress. Some- 

 times 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 im- 

 movable eye, while yet he hears nothing, he sees nothing, and is uncon- 

 scious of every thing arouixl him. Such is the description of despair, as 

 given in the well-known passage of Spenser : — 



The darksome cave they enter, wher they find 

 That cursed mau, low sitting on the ground, 

 Musing full sadly in his suUein mind : 

 His griesie lockes, long growen and unbound, 

 Disordered hong about his shoulders round, 

 And hid his face, through which his hollow eyne 

 Lookt deadly dull, and stared as astound, 

 His raw-boue cheekes, through penurie and pine, 

 Were shronke into his iawes, as he did never dine.* 



The best picture of this passion is Hogarth's, whose scene is admirably 

 chosen, and consists of the gaming-house, with its horrible implements and 

 furniture, in which the maddening sufferer had thrown hi& last stake, and 

 met his utter ruin. 



Tension, then, permanent or alternating, is the main character of the vio- 

 lent and repulsive passions ; but if the attack be abrupt and intolerably ve- 

 hement, the nervous system becomes instantaneously exhausted, as by a 

 stroke af lightning ; and the muscles are instantly relaxed, paralyzed, and 

 powerless. Milton has given us an exquisite exemplification of tfe in the 

 following picture of Adam, immediately after the fust deadly transgres- 

 sion 



Onth' other side Adam, soon as he heard 

 The fatal trespass done by Eve, amazed, 

 Astonied stood, and blank ! while horror chill 

 Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd. 

 From his slack hand the garland wreath'd for Eve 

 Down dropp'd, and all the faded roses shed. 



But let US turn to a pleasanter subject. I have said, that in the expres- 

 sion of the attractive passions all is flexible and pliant. Their characters^ 

 are necessarily less powerful, and many of them are common to the entire 

 class. 



In perfect tranquillity and content of mind, when all the passions are 

 lulled into a calm, and the gentle spirit of imagination alone is stirring on 

 the surface of the mental lake, there is, as I have already observed, a soft- 

 ened outline, a smooth and uniform sweep of the entire figure ; every fea- 

 ture of the body uniting in the repose of the soul. Such is often the pic- 

 ture of him who love& Nature for her own sake, and listens with soothing 

 meditation, amidst the steeps, the woods, or the wilds, that stretch their ro- 

 mantic scenery around him ; and calls for no companions, for he feels no 

 solitude. 



To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, 

 Slowly to trace the forest's shady scene. 



+ Faerie Queene, b. i. cant. ix. xxxv. 



