PASSION. 
to self-love in many instances, but tliis pas- 
sion is frequently extended in a secondary 
state to an apprehension for the well-being 
of others in whose happiness we feel deeply 
interested ; and yet it may admit of doubt 
whether the idea of being deprived of some 
previously experienced pleasure may not 
influence and promote our apparently dis- 
interested affection. Indeed there are phi- 
losophers who attribute all our passions and 
actions to the sole motive of self-love, 
though we hope and trust erroneously. 
Various theories have been published, by 
which their authors have endeavoured to 
elucidate the manner in which the passions 
are excited in and act upon the soul, the agir 
tation of which is expressed in many different 
modes by the features and muscles. Indeed, 
the language of this ethereal and inexplicable 
spirit speaks through every fibre, and each 
passion is known to an indifferent spectator, 
without the intervention of an explanatory 
sound. It would seem, from the sudden 
and involuntary experience of agitation, 
that the passions were implanted in the soul 
as centinels watchful for its safety, and that 
of the person it inhabits. Were this the 
truth, some have observed, it might be 
supposed, that every impulse would be 
found correct and proper : sad conviction, 
however, proves, it is added, that nothing 
can be more ill-founded than such a suppo- 
sition, as not an individual exists at this 
moment who has not discovered, that he 
has feared where he ought to have esteemed, 
hated when he ought to have admired, 
loved when he ought to have detested, and 
in numerous instances been blinded either 
by misconceived partiality, or equally un- 
just prejudice. Such, at least, is the de- 
cision of unthinking persons ; those, on the 
contrary, who do justice to the Creator, 
feel and acknowledge, that the passions are 
the most correct of centinels, particularly 
when guided and governed by the superior 
gift of reason. 
Accident may have distorted the fea- 
tures, and deranged the graceful turn of the 
limbs of an unfortunate individual ; by this 
means he becomes an object of disgust, 
and he probably resembles the wretch who 
commits midnight assassination, or secretly 
stabs' reputation by malicious inferences : 
let this unhappy person meet unexpectedly 
with two others, who have never seen him 
before, one under the influence of uncon- 
trolled passions, and the other completely 
master of them ; the former exclaims with 
terror, and shuns the presence of the ill- 
favoured mortal; the latter receives the 
same alarm from the soul, but giving tiie 
reins to reason, a cool examination takes 
place, and by reading the mind of the ter- 
rific object, he finds nothing to fear, but 
probably much to admire and esteem, and 
perhaps secures a friend, which the other 
loses by absurd precipitation. 
The passion of fear has evidently been 
implanted in us, in order to preserve the 
extremely frail and delicate organs which 
compose our bodies ; but such is the per- 
verseness of our education, that this very 
passion is frequently the immediate cause of 
our destruction. This certainly never could 
have been the case, had we been taught 
from our infancy to govern it by reason : 
the prescience of the soul shows instanta- 
neously the extent of the danger to be ap- 
prehended; were the impulse lessarbitraiy, 
it would be disregarded ; the alarm given, 
reason is always at hand to suggest the 
means of preservation ; amr can her dictates 
frequently fail, though it must be admitted 
circumstances do sometimes exist which 
preclude a possibility of extrication. 
In reasoning upon this subject, facts 
ought to supersede theory, and it should be 
our endeavour, at least, to be of service to 
the community, by showing the public their 
errors from their own conduct. In this 
particular it is, unhappily, in our power to 
cite a recent instance of the fatal effects of 
imcontrolled fear. We allude to the loss of 
eighteen lives, in October, 1807, at Sad- 
ler’s Wells, where the brutal conduct of 
two persons in a state of intoxication, in- 
sulting every person near them, excited 
alarm in some weak females, seated above 
them in the boxes ; which natural and ne- 
cessary emotion was suffered, by indul- 
gence, to confound their senses of seeing, 
hearing, and smelling, to such a degree as 
to derange their ideas even to madness. 
In this state of fear they exhibited the most 
frantic gestures, exclaimed fire in their de- 
lirium, and soon lost the power of deliver- 
ing themselves from the supposed danger. 
The horror of being burned to death im- 
mediately spread ; all ranks of persons, 
from the pit to the gallery, obeyed the dic- 
tates of fear, and each endeavouring to 
escape, pressure, and suffocation, and death 
followed. The performers, in full posses- 
sion of their faculties, terrified at the scene 
before them, joined with the managers, by 
signs and intreaties, to obtain quiet and si- 
lence in vain. In vain did they urge that 
the stage could not be on fire and they not 
