PHILOSOPHY, MENTAL. 
danger. By degrees the child learns from 
observation and imitation, to nse various 
muscular exertions, words, gestures, &c. in 
order to ward off or remove the causes of 
uneasiness or pain, and so goes on multi- 
plying perpetually, by further and further 
associations, both the occasions of anger 
and the expressions of it; and in paiticular, 
associates the desire of hurting another, 
with the apprehension or actual receivingof 
harm from that other. As men grow up to 
adult age, and distinguish living creatures 
from things inanimate, rational and moral 
agents from irrational ones, they learn to 
refer effects to their more ultimate causes , 
and tints tlieir resentment passes from the 
inanimate instrument to the living agent, 
especially if this latter be rational and 
moral. When the moral ideas of just and 
unjust, right and wrong, merit and demerit 
have been acquired, and applied to the 
actions and circumstances of liunian life, in 
the manner to be hereafter desci ibed, the 
internal feelings of this class have great 
influence in increasing or moderating our 
resentment. 
88. Cruelty and malice are the genuine 
and necessary effects of anger indulged and 
gratified. They are most apt to rise in 
proud, selfish, and timorous persons, those 
who conceive highly of their own merits, and 
of the consequent injustice of all offences 
against them, and who have an exquisite 
feeling and apprehension in respect of pri- 
vate gratifications and uneasinesses. The 
low and unhappy condition of those around 
him, gives a dignity to a man’s own ; and 
the infliction of punishment, or mere suf- 
fering, strikes a terror, and so affords secu- 
rity and authority. Add to these the plea- 
sures arising from gratifying the will, and 
perhaps some from mere curiosity, and from 
the rousing an obdurate callous mind to a 
state of sensibility. Thus we may perceive 
how nearly one ill passion is related to 
another; and that it is possible for men to 
arrive at last at some degree of pure cruelty 
and malice. 
6. Of the Pleasures and Pains of Theopathy, 
89. In order to form just ideas respecting 
fhe origin and nature of the theopathetic 
affections, it will be desirable to show what 
associations are formed with the word God, 
and with the equivalent and related terms 
and phrases, — Many of the actions and at- 
tributes of men are in common language ap- 
plied to God ; and it is probable that chil- 
drgn in their first attempts to decypher the 
meaning of the word, suppose it to stand 
for a man whom they have not seen ; and 
their visible conceptions connected with 
the term will therefore be that of a htiman 
form. When they hear or read that God 
resides in heaven, (that is, according to 
their conceptions, among the stars), that he 
made all things, that he sees, hears, knows, 
and can do all things, vivid ideas which sur- 
prise and agitate the mind are raised np in 
it ; and if tie y have made some progress in 
intellect, they will feel great perplexity in 
their endeavours to realize such ideas to 
themselves ; and this perplexity will add to 
the vividness of the ideas, and all together will 
transfer to the term God and its equivalent, 
such secondary ideas as may be referred to 
the heads of magtiificence, astonishment, 
and reverence. When children hear that 
God has no visible shape, that he cannot bq 
seen, &c. it adds much to their perplexity 
and astonishment, and at the same time de- 
stroys many of their former ideas ; still 
however some visible ideas of Ihe heavens, 
the throne of God, &c. seem to remain. 
When a child hears that God is the re- 
warder of good actions, and the punisher 
of evil actions, and that the most exquisite 
future happiness or misery (desciibed under 
a great variety of particular emblems), are 
prepared by him for the good or bad respec- 
tively, he feels strong hopes or fears rise al- 
ternately in his mind, according to the judg- 
ment which he passes upon his own actions, 
founded partly upon the previous,judgment 
of others, and partly upon an imperfect mo- 
ral sense or conscience begun to be pro- 
duced in his mind. At different periods of 
this progress, those ideas which have arisen 
from his filial relation, unite and blend 
with all the ideas previously connected 
with the term God, in consequence of the 
frequent application of the term Father to 
the Supreme Being ; and there cannot be a 
reasonable doubt, that the notions and 
feelings which he has formed towards his 
earthly parents, at first form a considerable 
share in, and for a long period afterwards 
tend to modify those belonging to the term 
God. — On the whole, therefore, it is pro- 
bable, that among Jews and Christians, 
children begin with a definite visible con- 
ception attached to the word ; that this is by 
degrees obliterated without any thing of a 
stable precise nature succeeding in its 
room ; and that by further degrees a great 
variety of strong mental affections recur in 
their turns when they think of God. 
90. The affections exerted towards God , 
