754 
V A S 
PASS'ING-PLACES, / in canal-navigation, are cer¬ 
tain places wider than the ordinary breadth of the canal, 
for boats to turn occafionally, or to lie in while others 
pafs. 
PASS'ING-TICKET,/ A kind of permit, being a 
note or check which the toll-clerks on fome canals give 
to the boatmen, ipecifying the lading for which they 
have paid toll. 
PASS'INGLY, adv. Exceedingly .—1 purfuide paffingly 
[in the prefent verlion, “beyond meafure”] the chirche 
of God. Wicliffie, Gal. i. 13.— Cardinal Pole having 
heard a certain preacher of great name, \vho arrogated 
much to himfelf, and did paffingly pleafe him felt; he 
was afked what he thought of the man; Pole anfwered, 
I would that he would firft preach unto himfelf, and then 
afterward toothers. Camden's Remains. 
PASS'ION, f. [Fr. from paffio, Lat.] Any effeCl caufed 
by external agency.—A body at reft affords us no idea of 
any aftive power to move ; and, when fet in motion, it is 
rather a pajjion than an aCtion in it. Locke. —Sufceptibi- 
lity of eft’eft from external a&ion.—The differences of 
mouldable and not mouldable, fciflible and not fciflible, 
and many other paffions of matter, are plebeian'notions, 
applied to the inftruments men ordinarily praCtife. Bacon. 
—Violent commotion of the mind.—All the art of rhe¬ 
toric, befides order and perfpicuity, only moves th z paj- 
Jions, and thereby mifleads the judgement. Locke. 
PaJJion's too fierce to be in fetters bound, 
And nature flies him like enchanted ground. Dryden. 
I am doubtful, left 
You break into fome merry pajjion, 
And fo offend him- Shakefpeare. 
Anger.—The word paffion fignifies the receiving any ac¬ 
tion in a large philofophical fenfe ; in a more limited 
philofophical fenfe, it fignifies any of the affeCtions of 
human nature; as love, fear, joy, forrow -. but the com¬ 
mon people confine it only to anger. Watts. —Zeal; ar¬ 
dour.—Where ftatefmen are ruled by faftion and intereft, 
they can have no paf)ion for the glory of their country, 
nor any concern for the figure it will make. Addifon on 
Medals.— Love.—For your love, you kill’d her father: 
you confefled you drew a mighty argument to prove your 
paffion for the daughter. Dryden and Lee's CEdipus. 
He, to grate me more, 
Publickly own’d his paffion for Ameftris. Rowe. 
Survey yourfelf, and then forgive your flave, 
Think what a pajjion fuch a form muft have. Granville. 
Eagernefs.—Abate a little of that violent paffion for fine 
cloaths, fo predominant in your fex. Swift. —A plaintive 
love-fong.—My meditations are loaded with metaphors, 
fongs, and fonnets; not a one (hakes his tail, but I figh 
out a paffion. Albumazar. —Emphatically, the laft fuf- 
fering of the Redeemer of the world.— He (hewed him¬ 
felf alive after his paffion, by many infallible proofs. 
Acts i. 3. 
Passion, is a word of which, as Dr. Reid obferves, the 
meaning is not precifely afcertained. either in common 
difcourfe'or in the writings of philofophers. In its ori¬ 
ginal import, it denotes every feeling of the mind occa- 
fioned by an extrinfic caufe ; but it is generally ufed to 
fignify fome agitation of mind, oppofed to that date of 
tranquillity in which a man is moft mailer of himfelf. 
That it was thus ufed by the Greeks and Romans, is 
evident from Cicero’s rendering waSe?, the word by which 
the philofophers of Greece exprefled it, by perturbatio in 
Latin. In this fenfe of the word, paffion cannot be itfelf 
a diftinft and independent principle of action ; but only 
an occafional degree of vehemence given to thofe difpo- 
litions, defires, and affections, which are at all times pre¬ 
fent to the mind of man; and that this is its proper 
fenfe, we need no other proof than that paffion has al- 
P A S 
ways been conceived to bear analogy to a florin at fea, or 
a tempeft in the air. 
With refpeft to the number of paffions of which the 
mind is fufceptible, different opinions have been held by 
different authors. Le Brun, a French writer on paint¬ 
ing, juftly confidering the expreffion of the paffions as a 
very important as well as difficult branch of his art, has 
enumerated no fewer than twenty, of wdiich the figns 
may be exprefled by the pencil on canvas. That there 
are fo many different dates of mind producing different 
effects which are vifible on the features and the geftures, 
and that thofe features and geftures ought to be diligent¬ 
ly fludied by the artift, are truths which cannot be de¬ 
nied ; but it is abfu.rd to confider all thefe different dates 
of mind as paffions, fince tranquillity is one of them, 
which is the reverie of paffion. 
Mr. Haflam very judicioufly afks, “Why fliould the 
moft aftive charafteriftics of our nature be termed paffions:’ 
The word feems properly employed in Paffion-week, the 
period commemorative of Chrift’s pajjion, or fuffering. 
But we are faid to fly or fall into a paffion, and then 
paffion gets the better of us. For the fofter fex we con¬ 
ceive the moft delicate, refined, and honourable, paffion ; 
yet every one allows the dreadful confequences which en- 
fue from an indulgence of our paffions, and moft perfons 
agree that pajjion carried to excels, conftitutes madnejs." 
Obfervations on Madnefs, p. 33, 4. 
In propriety, all thofe motions whereby the foul is 
carried towards any thing, as Love, Ambition, Revenge, 
&c. are rather adlions than paffions. Thofe motions by 
which the foul finds itfelf interrupted in its actions, as 
Grief, &c. are the only real paffions. 
The common divifion of the paffions into Defire and 
Averfion, Hope and Fear, Joy and Grief, Love and Ha¬ 
tred, has been mentioned by every author who has treated 
of them, and needs no explication ; but it is a queftion 
of fome importance in the philofophy of the human mind, 
whether thefe different paffions be each a degree of an 
original and innate difpofition, diftinft from the difpofi- 
tions which are refpeflively the foundations of the other 
paffions, or only different modifications of one or two ge¬ 
neral difpoiitions common to the whole race. 
The former opinion is held by all who build their 
fyftem of metaphyfics upon a number of diftinft internal 
fenfes ; and the latter is the opinion of thofe who, with 
Locke and Hartley, refolve what' is commonly called 
inftindl into an early affociation of ideas. That without 
deliberation mankind inftantly feel the paffion of fear 
upon the apprehenfion of danger, and the paffion of anger 
or refentment upon the reception of an injury, are truths 
which cannot be denied; and hence it is inferred, that 
the feeds of thefe paffions are innate in the mind, and that 
they are not generated, but only fwell to magnitude on 
the profpeCt of their refpeftive objedts. In fupport of 
this argument, it has been obferved that children, with¬ 
out any knowledge of their danger, are inftinflively 
afraid on being placed on the brink of a precipice; and 
that this paffion contributes to their fafety long before 
they acquire, in any degree equal to their neceffities, the 
exercife of their rational powers. Deliberate anger, 
caufed by a voluntary injury, is acknowledged to be in 
part founded on reafon and reflection ; but, where anger 
impels one fuddenly to return a blow, even without 
thinking of doing mifchief, the paffion is inftinCtive. In 
proof of this, it is obferved, that inftin&ive anger is fre¬ 
quently railed by bodily pain, occafioned even by a flock 
or a (tone, which inftantly becomes an objeCt of refent¬ 
ment, that we are violently incited to crufli to atoms. 
Such condudt is certainly not rational, and therefore it 
is fuppofed to be neceflarily inftindtive. 
With refpeCt to other paffions, fuch as the lull: of 
power, of fame, or of knowledge, innumerable inftances, 
lays Dr. Reid, occur in life, of men who facrifice to them 
their eafe, their pleafure, and their health. But it is ab- 
furd to fuppofethat men fliould facrifice the end to what 
they 
