PASSION, or the Passions. The latter term serves to express those sensations of the soul excited by pleasure and pain ; which two principal feelings are divided into a variety of branches, and those we shall endeavour, in the succeeding pages, to explain, as far as our limited powers will permit.
The passions are, in a great degree, selfish ; and yet, fortunately for the gene ral benefit of the human race, they are far from being entirely so.
Fear may be said to be entirely con fined to self-love in many instances, but this passion is frequently extended in a secondary state to an apprehension for the well-being of others, in whose happi ness we feel deeply interested ; and yet it may admit of doubt whether the idea of being deprived of some previously expe rienced pleasure may not influence and promote our apparently disinterested af fection. Indeed there are philosophers 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 pas sions are excited in and act upon the soul, the agitation 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, with out 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. \V ere this the truth, some have observed, it might be supposed, that every impulse would he found correct and proper: sad conviction, however, proves, it is added, that nothing can be more ill-founded than such a supposition, as not an individual exists at this moment who has not disco vered, 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 par tiality, or equally unjust prejudice. Such,
at least, is the decision of unthinking persons ; those, on the contrary, who do justice to the Creator, feel and ac knowledge, 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 assassina tion, or secretly stabs reputation by ma licious inferences : let this unhappy per son meet unexpectedly with two others, who have never seen him before, one un der the influence of uncontrolled pas sions, and the other completely master of them ; the former exclaims with terror, and shuns the presence of the ill-favour ed mortal; the latter receives the same alarm from the soul, but giving the reins to reason, a cool examination takes place, and by reading the mind of the terrific object, he finds nothing to fear, but probably much to admire and es teem, and perhaps secures a friend, which the other loses by absurd precipi tation.
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 instantaneously the extent of the danger to be apprehended; were the impulse less arbitrary, it would be disregarded ; the alarm given, reason is always at hand to suggest the means of preservation ; nor can her dictates frequently fail, though it must be admitted circumstances do some times exist which preclude a possibility of extrication.