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 A TREATISE ON THE LEADING CAUSES 
 
 OF PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 IN THE HUMAN MIND. 
 
 ESPECIALLY AS THEY RELATE TO THE ENJOYMENT 
 
 OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL AND 
 
 THE FACULTY OF TASTE. 
 
 BY THE REV. CHAS. FRED. WATKINS, 
 
 7 
 
 VICAR OF BRIXWORTH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 WILLIAM PICKERING, 
 
 1841. 
 

 CHISWICK : 
 
 PRINTED BY C« WHITTINGHAM. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 A SIMPLE and trifling incident gave 
 rise to the present work. Sitting 
 down one day, as far back as nine or ten 
 years ago, before the fire, I was led by the 
 appearance of an active flame which ema- 
 nated from it with lambent strokes, to con- 
 template the origin of that intense delight 
 which we all seem prone to feel on beholding 
 a blazing fire. My mind was forcibly im- 
 pressed with the idea, that we must look to 
 the quality of motion for the primary and 
 physical occasion. On referring to different 
 varieties and instances of motion in other 
 bodies, this first impression was subsequently 
 ripened into confirmed conviction. I was 
 then led to consider what there is intrinsically 
 in motion, or indicated by it, that it should 
 prove so universal an occasion of delight to 
 the human race. Continued reflection on 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 the subject convinced me, that its being an 
 indication of life is the primary and prevail- 
 ing cause of that delight with which we are 
 wont to contemplate motion in general. 
 
 I had previously received an experimental 
 conviction, in the course of some Geological 
 investigations, that the curve line also is in 
 all nature an indication of life, and hence the 
 line of beauty, or of pleasurable sensation and 
 emotion to the race of men. 
 
 These two conclusions were followed by 
 many others on the origin, modifications, and 
 tendencies of all human emotions and sensa- ' 
 tions, which I found to be referrible, in their 
 ultimate origin and termination, to life and 
 death, the conservation and welfare of the 
 one, the evitation and horror of the other. 
 
 Hereupon I purposed writing an Essay on 
 the subject of our several emotions and sen- 
 sations, with the view of placing that subject 
 in a clear and satisfactory light, a deside- 
 ratum long and earnestly sought for by the 
 literary world, in distant and recent ages, as | 
 well as in the present day ; and confessedly 
 attempted in vain by many acute and patient 
 investigators of physical and moral science, 
 
 
PREFACE; V 
 
 as well as by persons of exquisite genius, 
 taste, and literary acquirements. 
 
 Among the most deservedly popular and 
 celebrated of these writers, Alison and Reid 
 appear to me to have hitherto accomplished 
 more than all the rest towards a satisfactory 
 elucidation of the subject : the latter by his 
 wonderful acumen and rigid adherence to 
 common sense and matter of fact; assisted 
 by an amazing store of well digested human 
 science and learning ; and guided, as well as 
 guarded, by the admonitory light of revealed 
 intelligence : the former by a quick percep- 
 tion of numerous peculiarities, and a just 
 discrimination of multiplied complexities, 
 which necessarily presented themselves to 
 his mind in the course of his extensive in- 
 vestigations ; whilst a noble genius, an exqui- 
 site sensibility, and an ample acquaintance 
 with the finest ancient and modern writers, 
 enabled him to treat his subject with remark- 
 able beauty and elegance ; and to illustrate 
 all its divisions with numerous and appro- 
 priate examples, selected with the finest 
 taste. 
 
 But, to make use of figurative expressions, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 there was still wanting, and still left wanting 
 by both these excellent writers, a point of 
 distance, a point of sight, and a vanishing 
 line, by which one might distinctly arrange, 
 and properly judge of, these several objects 
 when placed in position. 
 
 Not perceiving any determinate principle 
 from whence to set out, nor any decided 
 mark to terminate the view, nor any definite 
 course to guide their projection, they failed 
 to give those several objects their proper 
 magnitude and proportions, and to make 
 them harmonize in the general view ; but 
 placed or grouped them severally and pro- 
 miscuously together, in a wild though beau- 
 tiful disorder. 
 
 It is not hereby intended that no previous 
 writers have ever glanced at the primary and 
 leading causes of our emotions and sensa- 
 tions; but only that they have not clearly 
 seen, and distinctly recognised them as such. 
 They have rather stumbled upon them in 
 their way by chance, without seeing the im- 
 portance, the bearing, and connexion which 
 they have with respect to the subjects of 
 their investigations. For instance, Lord 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 Karnes, writing on the pleasure derived from 
 a perception of the beauty of figure, speaks 
 thus : "To inquire, why an object, by 
 means of the particulars mentioned, (viz, 
 regularity, uniformity, proportion, order, and 
 simplicity), appears beautiful, would, I am 
 afraid, be a vain attempt ; it seems the most 
 probable opinion, that the nature of man was 
 originally framed with a relish for them, in 
 order to answer wise and good purposes. To 
 explain these purposes, or final causes, though 
 a subject of great importance, has scarce been 
 attempted by any writer. One thing is evi- 
 dent, that our relish for the particulars men- 
 tioned adds much beauty to the objects that 
 surround us : which of course tends to our 
 happiness ; and the Author of our nature has 
 given many signal proofs that this final cause 
 is not below his care."* 
 
 Had not the noble lord thought it " a vain 
 attempt" to inquire, he might perhaps, by 
 
 * I have to notice that the words which I have placed 
 in italics above, for the sake of pointing them out more 
 especially than the rest, are in the Roman characters in 
 the original. 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 inquiry, have found, that the subjects which 
 had " scarce been attempted by any writer" 
 would have yielded to his acute and diligent 
 search. 
 
 Modesty would hereupon fain induce me 
 to inquire, Shall I then hope to succeed, where 
 these, and so many of the mighty dead have 
 tried and failed ? 
 
 Truth replies, " I am willing to be wooed 
 by every sincere and zealous follower; and 
 if he is humble enough to be taught, I 
 never suffer him to depart without receiving 
 some token or other of my unfeigned re- 
 gard." 
 
 Science answers, " I am never tired of 
 shewing my depositaries to those who come 
 with proper catalogues and instructions in 
 their hands; and am continually opening 
 fresh chambers and recesses to those who are 
 not satisfied with former exhibitions, but who 
 resolutely importune to look still further and 
 deeper into my endless and unfathomable 
 stores." 
 
 " We ought never," says Dr. Reid, " to 
 despair of human genius, but rather to hope 
 that in time it may produce a system of the 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 powers and operations of the human mind, 
 no less certain than those of optics and as- 
 tronomy. 
 
 " There is a natural order in the progress 
 of the sciences, and good reasons may be 
 assigned why the philosophy of body should 
 be elder sister to that of mind, and of a quicker 
 growth; but the last hath the principle of 
 life no less than the first, and will grow up, 
 though slowly, to maturity. 
 
 " The remains of ancient philosophy upon 
 this subject are venerable ruins, carrying 
 the marks of genius and industry sufficient 
 to inflame, but not to satisfy our curiosity. 
 In later ages, Des Cartes was the first that 
 pointed out the road we ought to take in 
 those dark regions. Malebranche, Amaud, 
 Locke, Berkeley, Buffier, Hutcheson, But- 
 ler, Hume, Price, Lord Karnes, have la- 
 boured to make discoveries ; nor have they 
 laboured in vain. For however different and 
 contrary their conclusions are, however scep- 
 tical some of them, they have all given new 
 light, and cleared the way to those who shall 
 come after them. 
 
 A distinct knowledge of the powers of 
 
 4( 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 the mind would undoubtedly give great light 
 to many other branches of science. Mr. 
 Hume hath justly observed, that \ all the 
 sciences have a relation to human nature; 
 and however wide any of them may seem to 
 run from it, they still return back by one 
 passage or another. This is the centre and 
 capitol of the sciences, which being once 
 masters of, we may easily extend our con- 
 quests every where.' 
 
 " The knowledge of the human mind is 
 the root from which the sciences grow, and 
 draw their nourishment. Whether, there- 
 fore, we consider the dignity of this subject, 
 or its subserviency to science in general, and 
 to the noblest branches of science in parti- 
 cular, it highly deserves to be cultivated." 
 
 Very soon after entering upon my task, I 
 perceived that much preliminary and corre- 
 lative matter would be necessary for the pur- 
 pose of clearly elucidating my limited under- 
 taking ; and that it would be as easy to 
 myself, and much more satisfactory to the 
 reader, to enlarge the sphere of my Treatise, 
 and embrace the whole of the subjects pro- 
 posed in the title of my work. 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 The field is thus rendered extensive ; the 
 divisions numerous, and each division capable 
 of many sub-divisions; and these again of 
 endless particularizations. But at present I 
 must satisfy myself with as general and suc- 
 cinct an account of the subjects proposed, as 
 a due regard to perspicuity of argument and 
 coherence of relation will permit. 
 
 And in prosecuting this work, I shall pro- 
 ceed, after the manner of the Grecian Geo- 
 meters, and the metaphysical dialogues of 
 Plato and Cicero, in a strictly synthetical 
 order; advancing no principles but such as 
 are obviously matter of fact, or generally 
 recognised as true by the common consent of 
 mankind ; or, at least, by the best autho- 
 rities in the several departments of human 
 science ; or else by the still more imposing 
 testimony of divine revelation ; and deducing 
 no inferences from these principles, but such 
 as admit of a clear and reasonable demon- 
 stration. The analytic mode of treating the 
 subject is not without its uses in some re- 
 spects ; but the more simple and rigid method 
 of the Grecian Synthesis is, in my appre- 
 hension, far more lucid in its progress, and 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 satisfactory in its results. Not that I wish 
 to make this philosophy 
 
 " Harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
 . But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
 And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, 
 Where no crude surfeit reigns." 
 
 Milton. 
 
A TREATISE 
 
 ON PLEASURE AND DELIGHT IN THE 
 HUMAN MIND. 
 
 MY first proposition, then, is — That all 
 our pleasurable emotions and delight- 
 ful sensations are to be referred, for their 
 primary origin, to the perception of life, 
 whether in its elements, symptoms, welfare, 
 or duration, singly or combined; and, vice 
 versa, all our distressing emotions, and pain- 
 ful sensations, are to be referred to the per- 
 ception of death, whether in its elements, 
 symptoms, aggravations, or duration, singly 
 or combined. 
 
 In order to demonstrate this proposition, 
 it is necessary to show what are the prevail- 
 ing elements, and obvious symptoms, or indi- 
 cations of life ; and to point out a sufficient 
 number and variety of instances in which 
 each of these elements, symptoms, or indica- 
 
*2 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 tions, are obviously wont to produce emotions 
 and sensations of pleasure and delight ; and 
 vice versa, with respect to those which indi- 
 cate the elements or symptoms of death. 
 
 And first, with respect to Figure ; in all 
 the numerous varieties thereof, as they come 
 from the hand of God, it will invariably be 
 found that, the curve line is an indication of 
 organic matter, and therefore may be properly 
 termed the line of life. In all animate sub- 
 jects, not only the general outlines, but those 
 of all the several members are more or less 
 curved; whilst internally the bones, the 
 muscles, the ligaments, the vessels, and all 
 the vital parts are also curvilinear. It is so 
 in beasts, fowls, fishes, reptiles, and zoophites; 
 but more especially the case in the human 
 frame. From the crown of* the head to the 
 sole of the feet, man is externally and inter- 
 nally composed of curvilinear substances, 
 single or complex, simple or compound. 
 Look at the form of his head, his face, his 
 eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; his 
 teeth, his lips, his neck, his arms, his trunk, 
 his thighs, his legs, hands, feet, and nails : 
 are they not all outlined with curves ? Does 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 3 
 
 a straight line help to bound one single limb ? 
 Not one : all are curved. Even his hair 
 when apparently of the lankest kind, has 
 something of a bend in its length, and in its 
 girth is cylindric. His bones are cylindric ; 
 his muscles elliptical; his nerves are cylin- 
 drical ; his arteries conical ; his veins tubular ; 
 the articulations of his joints, the ligaments, 
 the viscera, all the noble parts, equally with 
 the inferior, are more or less curved. 
 
 The same will hold, in degree, of the struc- 
 ture of all inferior animals, as their compara- 
 tive anatomy abundantly teaches # . 
 
 The like may be said of trees, which, 
 though straight in their axes, are cylindrical 
 in their girth, and curved in the form of their 
 branches, boughs, and leaves; and so are 
 vegetables, and so are the herbs, and flowers 
 of the fieldf. 
 
 * Alison has said very untruly, that, " In the animal 
 kingdom, strong and powerful animals are generally 
 characterized by angular forms." He has not attempted 
 to instance one kind ; nor could he have shown that the 
 elephant or whale, the horse or eagle, are less curvilinear 
 than the hare and herring, the cat and sparrow. 
 
 f The same excellent writer has committed a grand 
 
4 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 On the contrary, the straight line is equally 
 indicative of inorganic and inanimate matter, 
 as the outlines of crystallization, metals, 
 schales, rocks, and earth sufficiently testify. 
 
 The only exceptions are to be found in the ' 
 spherical figure of the suns and planets ; but 
 as these suspended orbs convey to our minds 
 an idea of eternity, or eternal existence, by 
 their circular form, without beginning, and 
 without end ; so by their perpetual motion, 
 warmth, and light, do they exhibit to our view 
 the other principal characteristics of animated 
 matter. 
 
 Nor was it a mean proof of the wisdom 
 
 and sagacity of Plato, when referring to the 
 
 [ 
 
 mistake again also, in saying that, " in the vegetable 
 kingdom, all strong and durable plants are in general 
 distinguished by (multiangular) forms," p. 330. They t 
 are less pliant, it is true ; and sometimes, but not always, i 
 less curved than the more delicate ; but certainly are 
 not multiangular. Nor has he instanced any one kind f 
 that is so. The oak, the elm, the beech, and all the \ 
 larger, strong trees, are of a curvilinear form, as well as 
 the willow, though of a less pliant texture, and less 
 flexible appearance. Neither the larger animals nor 
 trees are naturally angular; but only sometimes become 
 so in consequence of the wasting away of their nutritive 
 parts by disease or hard usage. 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 5 
 
 circular figure of the visible world, he declared 
 that God had thereby made it " an image of 
 his own eternity." 
 
 The fact itself, then, that God hath made 
 this remarkable difference in the respective 
 forms and structures of animate and inanimate 
 bodies, is evident and unquestionable. 
 
 And the dictates of reason and philosophy 
 will alike teach us, that what his will and 
 power has thus effected, his wisdom and 
 goodness had predetermined in adaptation to 
 the conserving and well being, as well as to 
 the respective uses, of the works of his hands. 
 
 For the curve line was made the boundary 
 of animate bodies, and of their component 
 parts, and also of the ever-rolling spheres, 
 because it is best adapted to secure their 
 strength and compactness, and fits them best 
 for continual motion and duration, # inasmuch 
 as they are thereby less subject to resistance 
 and attrition in their respective movements 
 and orderly courses. 
 
 * Vide Professor Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, 
 Book II. chap. 2, 3, On the Circular Orbits of the 
 Planets ; and the Stability of the Solar System. 
 
 B 
 
6 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 And as motion, ease, and conservation 
 were, on the one hand, designed by the 
 curve ; so on the other side, the several 
 strata were, with equal wisdom and goodness, 
 prepared to be the more easily separated 
 and comminuted, for the service and use of 
 the living creature, by their multi-angular 
 forms and rectilineal positions. f 
 
 And it is worthy of observation that, when 
 the animated bodies of men, or brutes, or 
 trees are going to decay, and preparing, as 
 it were, for a dissolution of their component 
 particles, they appear, through wasting dis- 
 ease, or rigorous service, proportionably an- 
 gular and rectilineal in their outward forms 
 and figures : so that the curve line may be 
 emphatically called the line of life, or of orga- 
 nization ; the straight line, the line of inani- 
 mation, and even of destruction. 
 
 Since then life, and the preservation, and ' 
 
 ■\ This argument I have not seen in any author, 
 although so obvious as it is. The dip of the strata has 
 indeed been alleged as proof of the divine contrivance, 
 for the supply of man's wants in fuel, water, and metals ;* 
 but not so the multi-angular forms and rectilineal posi- | 
 tion of inanimate matter. 
 
 * Vide Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND, 7 
 
 welfare, and duration of life, are, by a divinely- 
 implanted instinct of his nature, of the most 
 intimate and dearest concern to man; and 
 death and destruction are, by a similar law 
 of his nature, the most abhorrent of all con- 
 ceivable things to his mind; are we not 
 rationally bound to conclude that, the lines 
 and forms which are so remarkably indicative 
 of those respective states and conditions, 
 were severally adapted, by the great and 
 wise Creator and Disposer of all things, to 
 beget the corresponding emotions and sensa- 
 tions of pleasure and delight in the one, of 
 distaste and dislike in the other ? 
 
 We know it as a physical fact, that, with 
 respect to one sense at least, rounded bodies 
 are beyond all others, the most easy of trac- 
 tation and agreeable to the touch; and, on 
 that account, produce emotions and sensations 
 of pleasure and delight: whilst rectilinear 
 and angular bodies are painful to handle, and 
 disagreeable to feel. 
 
 Since then, there is, with respect to the 
 sense of touch, an undoubtedly positive adap- 
 tation of figure to the respective emotions 
 and sensations of pleasure and delight on the 
 
8 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 one hand, and of distaste and dislike on the 
 other; must we not reasonably admit that, 
 there is an equally positive adaptation of lines 
 and figures to the eye, and, through that 
 organ to the sense of sight, for the purpose 
 of producing the same effects. # 
 
 And hence, by association of ideas, inani- 
 mate things made curvilinear are adapted to 
 produce emotions and sensations of pleasure 
 and delight, as arches, meandering rivers, 
 convex sloping banks, and winding walks, 
 spherical vessels, &c, as indicating one or 
 more of the several qualities of strength, 
 compactness, and duration; and of gentle- 
 
 * Hogarth has endeavoured to show, and Alison 
 admits his theory, that the serf^entine is the most beau- 
 tiful figure in nature ; but this is not enough. If we 
 thoroughly examine the subject, we shall find that differ- 
 ent bodies require different kinds of curves, some simple, 
 others compound ; some serpentine parallelisms ; others 
 serpentine ellipses. The earth, and the heavenly spheres 
 require a simple circular curve for their gravitating mo- 
 tion, only rendered oblate at the poles by centrifugal 
 force. The outlines of the human form, limbs, and 
 muscles, &c. are serpentine ellipses, more or less oblate, 
 or tapering, at different parts, for the greater facility of 
 the various motions, evolutions, contractions, and expan- 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 9 
 
 ness, softness, ease, smoothness, and pliabi- 
 lity. 
 
 Now before applying the epithet of beauti- 
 ful to any object, it is proper to determine 
 the meaning of the word; and while I do 
 this in accordance with its general acceptation 
 among the gross of mankind, my definition 
 will certainly militate, in some respects, 
 against the sense in which the word is used 
 by some of our most celebrated metaphysical 
 writers, especially the eloquent and admirable 
 Burke, who has limited the epithet to things 
 of small size, whatever other qualities he may 
 allow them to possess ; and, owing to this 
 
 sions, which their numerous functions demand : whilst 
 some of their internal vessels are merely cylindric. And 
 this is the case with other animals and trees. On the 
 other hand, rivers, walks, and other inanimate bodies 
 are frequently serpentine parallelisms, which exhibit con- 
 tinuity, ease, and variety. For these reasons I have 
 used the general term curvilinear in this essay. A 
 celebrated artist, I believe Mr. Reinagle, has attempted 
 to prove a composition of curves to be more beautiful 
 than a mixture of curves and straight lines, and these 
 than simple curves ; but he has confined his specimens 
 to such as are suited to the forms of boughs, buds, and 
 leaves of trees, which is only one department of nature. 
 
10 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 unnecessarily strict limitation, he has exhi- 
 bited great confusion and inconsistency in 
 opposing the beautiful to the sublime, as 
 qualities of a directly opposite kind, and 
 differing entirely in magnitude, which is not 
 by any means an essential cause of difference, 
 though it may certainly appear to exist in 
 numerous instances, for reasons which I hope 
 to specify hereafter. 
 
 As for the word itself, it is well known that 
 we derive it immediately from the French 
 Beaute, which is formed from the adjective 
 beau, belle ; and this from the Latin bellus, 
 which is a contraction of benulus, the dimi- 
 nution of benus, since written bonus. The 
 French and Latin both agree in signifying 
 fine, pretty, comely, and charming ; but with 
 this difference, that the Latin word being a 
 diminutive, is more frequently applied to what 
 is small of its kind. And this casual mean- 
 ing has perhaps occasioned some of our 
 English writers to limit the signification of 
 beautiful in all cases to what is small and 
 delicate of its kind. And hence the error of 
 Burke in contrasting the sublime and beau- 
 tiful. 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 1 L 
 
 The Hebrew word fa£ Japhe which we 
 translate beautiful, has a more satisfactory 
 origin and meaning, as given by Simonis 
 under the Arabic r ^ j which signifies that 
 which is perfect and entire, and complete 
 in all its parts ; and is applied to things 
 animate and inanimate, both in a physical 
 and moral sense. 
 
 If to this we add the signification of another 
 word mo in that language, which answers 
 to bonus in Latin, and to the to viaXov in 
 Greek, and which signifies good, fair, useful, 
 comely, excellent, happy, grateful, cheerful, 
 and pleasant — morally and physically also — 
 we shall have the full signification of the 
 beautiful in its cause, aspect, effect, and 
 purport. And thus the word is used at the 
 beginning of the book of Genesis in reference 
 to all the works of God, which appeared 
 fair, cheerful, and pleasant to the eye ; were 
 good and useful in their tendency and effect ; 
 well adapted to their being and end. 
 
 With respect to figure, the curve line was 
 first, if I mistake not, called by Hogarth, in 
 his analysis of that quality, " the line of 
 Beauty," and was acknowledged by Burke 
 
12 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 to be such in his celebrated work " on the 
 Sublime and Beautiful in Nature;" and by 
 Alison also as generally such in his Essay 
 on Taste ; but neither of those distinguished 
 persons appear to have known the reason 
 why it is indeed the line of Beauty; or, 
 which is the same thing, why it serves to 
 produce emotions and sensations of pleasure 
 and delight in the human mind. All subse- 
 quent writers on the subject likewise admit 
 of its chiefly contributing to the form of 
 beauty ; but neither do they assign any satis- 
 factory reasons for this generally acknow- 
 ledged fact.f 
 
 f Alison endeavours to show that, " the beauty of 
 curvilinear forms arises from the qualities of fineness, 
 delicacy, and ease of which the*y are expressive ;" but 
 allowing that he established the fact, which to a certain 
 extent he has, but more especially with respect, to the 
 quality of ease ; yet, could we satisfactorily stop at such 
 fact? Do we not still require to know, why it is that 
 the quality of ease should afford us pleasure and delight 
 in the contemplation of any form or lines by which it is 
 expressed. The reason is as necessary as the fact. I 
 will therefore carry on the investigation for him upon 
 his own grounds; and observe that ease, and volition 
 (which he once, p. 334, couples with it as indicated by 
 curve lines) are as circumstantials favourable to the 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 13 
 
 It now appears seasonable to note that, 
 the ordinary use of the faculty of seeing, 
 with which all men are commonly endowed 
 by the Great Creator of the universe, with 
 his gift of the sense of sight, is quite sufficient 
 for the general and simple perception of those 
 properties in animated matter, which are 
 adapted and indicated to it by the curve or 
 flexible line ; and that the ordinary use of the 
 faculty of handling, with which all men are as 
 commonly endowed by the same omnipotent 
 Creator, withhis further giftof the senseof feel- 
 ing, is also alone sufficient for the general per- 
 ception of those tangible properties in curvi- 
 
 existence, welfare, and continuance of life ; and, as natu- 
 ral attributes or qualities, volition is expressive of the 
 high order, as ease is of the vigorous or healthy state of 
 life ; and therefore it is that the lines or forms which 
 represent them are pro tanto objects of pleasure and 
 delight to the human mind. And, indeed, he himself 
 has all but traced the matter to its source, when he 
 asks the question, " whether from the winding of a river, 
 of the ivy, or of the tendrils of the vine, the reader has 
 not an impression of ease, of freedom, of something 
 agreeable to the object ; and whether in the contrary 
 forms he has not an impression of uneasiness, from the 
 conviction of force having been applied, or some obstacle 
 having occurred to constrain them to assume a direction 
 
14 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 linear bodies, which administer such universal 
 pleasure to the sensible nerves of mankind. 
 
 But notwithstanding these natural powers 
 of simple perception are generally common 
 to all men, they are nevertheless livelier and 
 stronger in some, than in others, according 
 to that vast variety of physical structure by 
 
 unnatural to them ?" So near was this excellent writer 
 to the fountain of research ! 
 
 Nor is it in this respect only that he approximates so 
 near ; but when he afterwards observes, " that, in general, 
 all the former directions are expressed by verbs in the 
 active voice ; a river winds, a vine wreathes itself about 
 the elm, a flower bends, &c. ; while, on the other hand, 
 all directions of the latter kind are expressed in general 
 by the passive voice of verbs :" — what is this but to say 
 that, in attributing action, we a' tribute animation, to 
 the one kind, because of their form ; and the other are 
 spoken of as inert matter, because of their contrary 
 inanimate figure ? With respect to the other qualities, 
 delicacy and fineness, which Alison supposes to consti- 
 tute the other essentials of beauty, and to give it its 
 highest degree, he seems to me to attribute too much 
 to those qualities. A certain degree of fineness and 
 delicacy may in most cases be essential to the beauty 
 of an object; but it does not follow that such object 
 is more beautiful than another, because it is more fine 
 and delicate than it. We must consider the relation 
 of the lines to the object, and attribute the palm of 
 beauty to those which are most congruous and harmoni- 
 ous. For instance, the Apollo Belvidere may be as 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 15 
 
 which, for wise and gracious purposes, the 
 several classes, families, and individuals of 
 the human race are, through the creative 
 and adaptive power of God, remarkably dis- 
 tinguished. 
 
 And therefore we find that some men are 
 naturally, what is called, more susceptible 
 
 beautiful as the Venus de Medici ; and the beech as 
 beautiful as the acacia, notwithstanding the latter may 
 be more delicate and fine. In short, this otherwise most 
 judicious and discriminating author has fallen into the 
 same error as Burke, in considering that beauty is to be 
 estimated by the smallest scale of measurement, and 
 thereupon calling things beautiful because they are 
 minute and pretty. There is indeed a great misuse of 
 language in most writers, when treating of the sublime 
 and beautiful ; and a more definite and discriminating 
 use of terms is therefore required. 
 
 I have no objection to make with respect to Alison's 
 description of the " Sublimity of Forms," contained in 
 chap. 4, part 1st of the 1st vol. of his work, to which I 
 beg to refer the reader for a sufficient enumeration of 
 those forms which may justly be considered sublime. 
 Unless indeed some of them might with stricter propriety 
 be denoted by other terms, such as, awful, horrid, dread- 
 ful, &c. But as that excellent writer seems to take the 
 word sublime in its widest signification, as a very com- 
 prehensive term, his application of it can hardly be 
 objected to, till such time as a stricter nomenclature 
 shall have been established, for the purpose of more 
 properly defining the qualities, and explaining the rela- 
 tions of things. 
 
10 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 than others of those simple emotions and 
 sensations of pleasure and delight, which are 
 occasioned by the mere impression of out- 
 ward forms. 
 
 And then again, besides that difference in 
 perception, or susception, which is the result 
 
 But he seems to me to have mistaken some of the 
 subjects of the 2nd section of the same chapter, on " the 
 natural and imitative beauty of forms." He asserts that 
 superior delicacy obtains the preference with all men, 
 in estimating the relative beauty and interest of outward 
 forms ; instancing the more delicate shrubs and foliage, 
 herbs and flowers, as the objects of our readiest choice 
 and dearest regard. 
 
 And certainly there is this preference of regard in 
 general, and of admiration almost as general, with respect 
 to the vegetable world ; but not absolutely and univer- 
 sally so, as I have already noticed. For even here 
 different tastes will estimate the qualities of those objects 
 by different scales of delicacy, and will give the pre- 
 ference to different degrees of delicacy, according, I 
 imagine, to some relative difference of structure, natural 
 or acquired, in their own physical condition, setting 
 aside all reference to scientific knowledge and observa- 
 tion of the qualities and growth of plants. 
 
 But still there remains to be shown on what principle 
 it is that the superior delicacy of form in objects of this 
 nature, should acquire our preference and chief regard. 
 Which principle I conceive to be this : — that such objects 
 are more within the scope of our management, and the 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 17 
 
 of the difference of organic structure in the 
 beholder, there are further differences and 
 modifications produced by the altered condi- 
 tion of these organic powers, in the same 
 person at different seasons, in consequence 
 of other numerous impressions interfering 
 
 exercise of our care, in appropriating them to ourselves, 
 and making them minister to our occupation of mind 
 and body, and consequently to the solace and delight of 
 our lives. It is thus that we rather choose, and more 
 highly admire the shrubs, and plants, and flowers of our 
 lawns, and gardens, and conservatories, as being more 
 portable, more compendious, and more manageable than 
 larger trees ; and, in like manner, the more delicate and 
 gentle of our petted animals, as more within the scope 
 of our ability than those of a larger, coarser kind ; pro- 
 moting their growth and watching their improvement 
 under our hands with anxious, fond regard, second alone 
 to that which we exercise and feel with respect to our 
 own beloved offspring. 
 
 The fact that those things which receive the greatest 
 portion of our care and kindness, become in consequence, 
 so much the more dear to our hearts; as, on the con- 
 trary, those things we are accustomed to use the worst, 
 become on that very account, more hateful to the mind, 
 is established by sacred and human testimony. The 
 consequences do not indeed appear so obvious and natu- 
 ral as the inversion of the case; viz. that we should cherish 
 them because we love them, or ill use them because we 
 hate them, but they are equally certain. 
 
18 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 with the organs themselves, or the exercise 
 of their natural faculties. 
 
 Disease, for instance, may sharpen or blunt 
 the organic structure, quicken or retard the 
 exercise of the faculties, and in some cases 
 totally destroy them ; whilst the loss of ano- 
 ther faculty may, by leaving them to appro- 
 priate and absorb what had previously gone 
 to the supply of that other faculty, increase 
 their susceptibility, and no less their ordinary 
 power ; as where the loss of sight is com- 
 pensated by a finer and more powerful sense 
 of feeling. 
 
 On the same principle of diversion, the 
 exercise of another faculty will, according 
 to its intensity, and during its continuance, 
 subtract from their proper exercise, though 
 not (unless carried to a practical habit) from 
 any of their natural capability ; as when one 
 is very attentive to hear some expected sounds, 
 the most busy prospect is so far vacant to the 
 sight, that we scarcely perceive what is pass- 
 ing before our eyes. 
 
 Hence it is that the same person is more 
 susceptible at one season than at another, 
 of those emotions and sensations of pleasure 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 19 
 
 and delight, which are occasioned by the 
 mere impression of outward forms. # 
 
 And these I consider to be the chief, if 
 not the only physical causes of those several 
 differences and modifications, in the emotions 
 and sensations of pleasure and delight in 
 
 * There is also a principle of preponderancy, by 
 which the imagination and consequent emotions and 
 sensations of the human mind are regulated and con- 
 trolled ; as when the passions and affections are too 
 deeply interested in more pressing and important consi- 
 derations, to admit of our exercising any observation 
 upon outward objects of minor and less urgent impor- 
 tance ; or when, if they suffer us to observe them, they 
 affect the imagination with an adventitious influence. 
 
 Alison has accordingly well observed on this point, 
 " That that state of mind, every man must have felt, is 
 most favourable to the emotions of taste, in which the 
 imagination is most free and unembarrassed ; or in which 
 the attention is so little occupied by any private or par- 
 ticular object of thought, as to leave us open to all the 
 impressions which the objects before us can produce. 
 It is upon the vacant and the unemployed, accordingly, 
 that the objects of taste make the strongest impression. 
 The seasons of care, of grief, or of business, have other 
 occupations, and destroy, for the time at least, our 
 sensibility to the beautiful or the sublime, in the same 
 proportion that they produce a state of mind unfavour- 
 able to the indulgence of imagination." Book I. Sect. 
 2, Chap. 1. 
 
20 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 outward forms, which we observe in different 
 persons, or in the same person at different 
 times. 
 
 Having thus shown that the physical emo- 
 tions and sensations of pleasure and delight 
 in curvilinear forms and figures, originate in 
 our instinctive love of life, which the curve 
 line in nature indicates to our sight, and in 
 the agreeable effects which rounded forms 
 produce by the sense of touch ; and how 
 those emotions and sensations are modified 
 by the peculiar structure or disease of those 
 organs of sight and feeling in different per- 
 sons, and by the deficiency of, or counter- 
 impression upon, the other organs of sense 
 in the same individual, I must observe that 
 this supposition of purely physical causes, is 
 not intended in so exclusive and absolute a 
 sense of the words, as that we should there- 
 fore conceive a human being moved and 
 influenced to pleasure and delight solely by 
 the impression of outward form upon these 
 two organs of sight and feeling, without any 
 modification from association of ideas, the 
 dictates of reason, morality, or religion; 
 unless in the season of tender infancy, before 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 21 
 
 the experimental, the rational, moral, or 
 religious powers are at all developed. And 
 even in that early season we can hardly 
 suppose the pleasure and delight which the 
 child exhibits at the sight of the mother's 
 countenance, and the tractation of her rounded 
 breasts, to be free from all other influences 
 of appetite, warmth, and colour, which afford 
 a combination of modified and modifying im- 
 pressions. 
 
 I only insist upon these physical being 
 primary and constituent causes of such emo- 
 tions and sensations in the occurrence of all 
 material forms. 
 
 And here I will reply to that question 
 which has been often agitated, as to whether 
 there is any original and essential beauty in 
 forms ? No doubt there was to everv form 
 an original and essential beauty, but only 
 sui generis, that which was best adapted to 
 effect the end and purpose for which it was 
 created, and to secure its welfare and pre- 
 servation: there is also a due proportion of 
 the parts necessary to ensure the end and 
 purpose, the welfare and preservation of the 
 whole body ; of which, natural perception, 
 
22 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 science, and experience must judge. And 
 therefore the several theories of fitness, utility, 
 proportion, &c. have, in part, a good founda- 
 tion with respect to beauty ; but neither of 
 them sufficiently extensive of itself alone. 
 And herein Alison is superior to most others, 
 in that he proves the beauty of forms to arise 
 from the associations connected with them, 
 or the qualities of which they are expressive 
 to us, although indeed Lord Karnes had anti- 
 cipated him in this. And hence there is room 
 for a great variety of beauty, in the different 
 forms of the sexes, at different ages, and in 
 different classes of both. And herein also we : \ 
 rise from physical and rational, to moral and » 
 religious perceptions of beauty, being influ- 
 enced by the recognition of moral and religious 
 qualities which the features, gestures, and 
 expressions of the human form convey to our 
 mind. Hence there appears as great a variety 
 of beauty in the human form, from moral 
 and religious considerations, as there does 
 from physical and rational. And the great 
 variety of particular tastes with respect to [ 
 particular kinds of beauty, are therefore de- 
 pendent upon the perceptions or opinions 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 23 
 
 which are entertained of the several qualities 
 expressed by the object. 
 
 The next quality that indicates life, in 
 outward objects, to the observing faculties of 
 man, is that of Motion; which produces 
 pleasure to our minds in a great degree pro- 
 portionate to the extent of vital power it indi- 
 cates, as compared with the usual endowment 
 of the moving body, and as it tends to the 
 continuance and welfare of life in the body 
 itself, or to the preservation and benefit of 
 those bodies on which it acts. For this rea- 
 son it must neither be violent on the one 
 hand, nor sluggish on the other. For sluggish 
 motion indicates disease, or want of vitality ; 
 and violent motion tends to the destruction 
 both of the moving and objective bodies. 
 Thus we are delighted with the ecstatic ges- 
 tures of infants and young children, the 
 agile motions of youth, the vigorous exhi- 
 bitions of manhood, and the dignified carriage 
 of maturer age, as respectively indicating a 
 healthful state of body, and a tendency to 
 promote the well being and duration of each 
 of those descriptions of persons. 
 
 But the proportion of pleasure which we 
 
24 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 naturally feel, is, cseteris paribus, most in 
 favour of the infantine, and least in favour of 
 the senile motions, because the former ap- 
 pears the most, the latter the least pregnant 
 with life. Rational, moral, and religious 
 reflections may turn the scale the other way ; 
 but the physical preference will prevail in 
 the order I have stated. Universal expe- 
 rience attests this, and the language of all 
 nations affirm it. 
 
 Nor is this source of pleasure confined to 
 the motions of the human race ; but extends 
 to those of the skipping lamb, as well as to 
 those of the sportive child ; to the fleetness 
 of the Arabian courser, as well as to the 
 agility of an admirable Crichton; and, in 
 degree, to all the animated tribes of the 
 earth. 
 
 And so, moreover, in all vegetable and 
 inanimate bodies in which motion is pro- 
 duced; neither by instinct, nor by volition, 
 as in animated bodies ; but by the impression 
 of extraneous agency ; the motion of each 
 being pleasing to the mind in degree some 
 what proportionate to the beneficial and l 
 conservative tendency of such motion. 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 25 
 
 Thus we delight in looking on the lambent 
 motion of a bright flame, which gives such a 
 peculiar zest to an Englishman's fire side ; 
 on the coruscations of the heavenly bodies ; 
 on the currents of winding rivers ; on the 
 dancing and rippling of our pebbly streams ; 
 { on the gentle waving of trees ; the moderate 
 i undulation of the sea; and the free course 
 I of a ship propelled by a favouring breeze. 
 In short we all love to see the whole of nature 
 stirring, as far as her motions proceed with 
 safety and prosperity to the present state of 
 things. But all such violent motions as 
 threaten a tendency to the destruction, or 
 injury, either of those persons or things which 
 originate such motions, or of those to which 
 such motions are directed, are naturally dis- 
 agreeable and unpleasant to the mind of 
 man. 
 
 Thus we are all naturally displeased with 
 the exhibitions of intemperate passions, vio- 
 lent exertions, raging storms, impetuous tor- 
 rents, falling houses, consuming flames, as 
 far as they threaten to produce diseases and 
 injuries, mischief and ruin, and finally to 
 terminate in death and destruction. 
 
26 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 For the same reason, absolute stillness is 
 abhorrent to man, as an image of death. 
 Thus stagnant waters; a total calm and 
 absence of wind at sea, if not relieved by the 
 action of the sun or moon on the surface of 
 the water; motionless bodies of men and 
 brutes; and, in degree, the sluggish and 
 feeble haltings of slothful or decrepid crea- 
 tures ; as indicative of the present, or of the 
 impending loss of animal life, and of corrup- 
 tion to inanimate bodies. 
 
 An invincible proof that motion is naturally 
 agreeable and pleasing to our minds, is to be 
 seen in the universal delight which all healthy 
 children express in beholding animate and 
 inanimate objects in motion, especially the 
 gambols of young creatures, whether of their 
 own kind or of the brute creation. 
 
 From all which circumstances it is evident, 
 that there is in motion such a divinely ap- 
 pointed adaptation to the visual faculties of 
 man as produces these universal feelings of 
 pleasure which he naturally finds in the first 
 described instances, and of dislike in the 
 latter cases. 
 
 The sensations may be stronger or weaker, 
 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 27 
 
 according to the strength or application of 
 the faculty in different persons ; and may be 
 modified by various causes to the same per- 
 son at different times ; in like manner as our 
 perceptions and relish of outward figures are 
 described to be ; but the principle, neverthe- 
 less, is still in force. 
 
 The next quality, pertaining to outward 
 objects, that indicates life, and thereby pro- 
 duces pleasure to the human mind, through 
 the faculty of sight, is that of Light. 
 
 This was the earliest production of the 
 Almighty fiat at the first creation of the solar 
 system, and followed that genial motion of 
 the Creative Spirit by which the confused, 
 unformed, and shapeless mass of inert matter 
 was stirred and warmed into life and action. 
 
 It was thus opportunely provided for mani- 
 festing the beauty and perfection of the 
 creatures about to be made ; and no less for 
 promoting, as it does, the healthful vegeta- 
 tion and colour of the herbs, and plants, and 
 trees of the field, and the joyful circulation 
 of the stream of life in the veins of the animal 
 creation. Thus, while it serves as a robe of 
 transcendent beauty for the whole external 
 
28 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 form of the visible world, it sweetens the 
 juices, and cheers the heart of the creature 
 within, proving both an element and indica- 
 tion of life.* 
 
 It is the first object of delight that rejoices 
 the eye at our coming into the world, and 
 the last object of regret from which we are 
 forced to part on leaving the world. It is 
 declared by the wisdom of the Omniscient 
 to be "pleasant to the eyes;" and is so 
 connected with life in the language of God 
 and of men, in the sacred Scriptures and in 
 profane writings, as to be almost identical, if 
 not synonymous with it. 
 
 At its presence all the animated part of 
 the creation issue forth from the womb of the 
 morning, and put themselves in lively motion 
 and active employ : when it departs they 
 retire to the shroud and sleep of night, whose 
 still and gloomy chambers appear like the 
 sepulchres of death prepared for the defunct. 
 
 With what exquisite pleasure and delight 
 do all men, possessed of the entire faculty 
 
 * Vide Kidd's Bridgewater Treatise, Section II. on 
 Light. 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 29 
 
 and healthy organs of sight, behold the return 
 of the beaming sun to enlighten the face of 
 the earth, after it has been concealed by dark 
 and murky clouds ? Or to be restored to the 
 lustre of its rays, after having been long 
 immured in some obscure abode ? But who 
 will require any logical argument, or scientific 
 demonstration to convince them of the beauty 
 of the light, or of those pleasurable sensa- 
 tions which we are all so prone to entertain 
 on beholding its welcome presence, and no- 
 ticing its cheerful effects on the visible scene 
 around? Our very existence might as well 
 be called into question, and made a matter 
 of cavil and doubt. No one could refuse to 
 admit the one and the other who was not 
 either blind in sight, blind of understanding, 
 or blinded by prejudice. The Eastern vo- 
 tary who worships the light is more rational 
 and excusable than one who would run into 
 such an opposite extreme. It is, moreover, the 
 joyful robe not only of nature, but is claimed 
 as such by the Creator of the world: his 
 dwelling is represented by the light, — nay, 
 his essence, his substance, is said to be light. 
 It is put for understanding also, and for 
 
30 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 purity of heart. So that nature, reason, and 
 religion equally unite in asserting its attri- 
 butes of pleasure and beauty ; as well as in 
 proving it to be both significant of, and aus- 
 picious to life. 
 
 And therefore we may well consider these 
 highly beneficial qualities, and these au- 
 thentic descriptions of light, a sufficient 
 ground for asserting that the Creator and 
 Preserver of the world hath so adapted the 
 light of nature to the sensitive faculty of 
 sight, as to make it an object of beauty to 
 the eye, and no less an occasion of pleasure 
 to the mind. Nor is it only the natural light 
 of the sun and stars, directly from them- 
 selves, or reflectively from the planets, the 
 beauty of which we admire, and in the plea- 
 sure of which we delight; but all other 
 natural light, whether it proceeds from the 
 radiation of gems and precious stones, or 
 other mineral and metalliferous substances ; 
 from electrical phenomena, or animal bodies, 
 is productive, in degree, of similar and 
 proportionate effects, with the exception of 
 not supplying such vital aid to the animal 
 and vegetable creation, as the light of the 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 31 
 
 heavenly orbs ; and all artificial lights pro- 
 duced by the science and skill of man, con- 
 tribute to the same sentiments, though not 
 to the same benefits as that of the heavenly 
 bodies. Hence the universal admiration, 
 favour, and delight with which splendid gems, 
 general illuminations, and brilliant objects of 
 every kind have always been regarded, and 
 made the instruments of public pageantries 
 and festivities by every civilised, and almost 
 every barbarous nation in the world. 
 
 This glorious phenomenon of nature, thus 
 pleasing and beneficial as it is when dis- 
 pensed in due proportion, will, when too 
 powerful in quantity or quality for the capa- 
 city of the recipient body, thereby prove 
 proportionally painful, disagreeable, and in- 
 jurious to the organ of sight ; effects arising 
 either from too near, direct, or concentrated 
 a force of the fountain source of light ; or 
 from the disease or imperfection of the ob- 
 jective organ. Thus a fevered or weakened 
 sight is offended and hurt by such a degree 
 of light as would rejoice and benefit a healthy 
 person ; and there are vertical and collective 
 floods of light too strong and dazzling for 
 any mortal eye to behold. 
 
32 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 On the contrary, darkness, as an image of 
 death, is as naturally abhorrent to man ; 
 and, if continued to any unusual extent, 
 would be prejudicial both to animal and 
 vegetable life. This is evinced by the dread 
 and dislike which children naturally have to 
 be left in the dark, as well as by the expe- 
 rience and testimony of men, and the decla- 
 rations and figurative language of the Holy 
 Scriptures on the subject. It is no less ab- 
 horrent, it would appear, to the vegetable 
 world; for when deprived of the light of 
 heaven, the herbs and flowers of the field 
 are found to languish and decay, or to lose 
 their sweetness and their former bloom, 
 with the exception of a few anomalous plants 
 which, on the contrary, are improved in 
 their salutary and nutritive qualities by the 
 artificial process of blanching their stems; 
 but these are exceptions to the general rule. 
 
 Colour, which is immediately dependent 
 upon, and associated with light, is another 
 visible indication either of the health, and 
 excellency, and well-being, and conservation, 
 or the vice versa, of the body in which it 
 resides; and therefore, when betokening 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 33 
 
 those favourable conditions, is an object of 
 pleasing sensation to the beholder's mind; 
 as, on the other hand, when it betokens the 
 reverse of those conditions, it is as generally 
 productive of the contrary sensations. 
 
 Thus a softly blended mixture of red and 
 white in the countenance of those persons 
 who inhabit a temperate climate, is generally 
 indicative of health and vigour ; and the ap- 
 pearance of a deep crimson, or yellow, or 
 pallid complexion, is as generally indicative 
 of bodily weakness or distemper. Therefore 
 it is that the union of the rose and lily, or a 
 rich brunette, as conveying the agreeable 
 intelligence of a well tempered constitution, 
 and healthy state of body to the eye, is gene- 
 rally regarded as an attribute of personal 
 beauty in " the human face divine ;" and the 
 presence of any other colour is regarded as 
 pro tanto a detraction from personal beauty. 
 
 On the contrary, a fair complexion would 
 seem to the inhabitant of the torrid zone the 
 effect of corporeal disease; and, on that 
 account, appear disagreeable and unamiable 
 in his eyes ; whilst a skin of jet black, or 
 inclining to a dark copper colour, as conso- 
 
34 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 nant with a state of health and vigour, is 
 esteemed by the inhabitants of those lower 
 latitudes an object of personal beauty and 
 delight. 
 
 On this principle it will be easy to account 
 for the partialities and tastes of all races of 
 men, with respect to their national com- 
 plexions, a subject that has excited the cu- 
 riosity and surprise, and baffled the investi- 
 gations of numerous writers, who have in 
 vain attempted to account for them on any 
 other principle. This, and this alone will 
 apply to all extremes and modifications of 
 colours that are considered beautiful in the 
 human countenance — the symptoms of health, 
 and vigour, and conservation being expressed 
 in different climates, localities, and situations, 
 by different degrees and admixture of colours, 
 which are thereupon held in corresponding 
 estimation by the several natives of those 
 respective countries. 
 
 For the same reason, the verdant tints of 
 the earth, and of the trees and plants which 
 adorn its surface, and the variegated dyes 
 proper to the several flowers, are equally 
 indicative of health and vigour : and, conse- 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 35 
 
 quently, are looked upon as objects of beauty 
 and delight : whilst the parched russet of the 
 sward, and the searing of the arid leaves, 
 and the blossom's faded glow, as denoting a 
 state of decay, are naturally sad and pensive 
 to the human mind ; and more especially so 
 when produced by any extraordinary drought, 
 before their natural season of decline. For 
 the same reason, a rich translucent blue on 
 the face of the deep waters, and the lofty 
 vaulted sky, as expressive of a healthful 
 state of undisturbed quiet in the smiling 
 aspect of the material world, is always con- 
 templated with admiration and delight by a 
 mind itself at ease. Nor do the light sum- 
 mer clouds of eve, shining with candied ra- 
 diance, and glowing with the genial warmth 
 of the setting sun occasion any other senti- 
 ments than these, because the light and 
 warmth of that glorious orb by which they 
 are brightened and suffused, are favourable 
 to the evocation and nutriment, to the com- 
 fort and conservation of animal life. But a 
 dull and murky tinge of the sea, and a 
 darkened inky state of the sky, or an inflamed 
 and sultry aspect of the heavens, are naturally 
 
36 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 productive of uneasy and unpleasant sensa- 
 tions to the mind, as the harbingers of storm 
 and tempest, of sickness and destruction to 
 some of those persons or creatures with 
 which our present interests are so intimately 
 concerned. 
 
 Our sentiments and sensations may indeed 
 be here, as with respect to all other objects 
 of sense, proportionally modified, and even 
 altered by other considerations of a higher, 
 and moro important, or more immediate in- 
 terest. 
 
 Moral and religious considerations may 
 occasion us to perceive more beauty in the 
 complexion where the rose is cankered, and 
 the lily faded, than where they are both in 
 undiminished bloom. And numerous other 
 motives may interfere to diversify the kind, 
 and regulate the quantity and proportion of 
 colour that is most agreeable to the eye of 
 different persons, in the various objects of 
 the animate and inanimate part of the crea- 
 tion. 
 
 Warmth is another constituent element 
 and indication of life, and essentially pro- 
 motes the comfort and conservation of that 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 3? 
 
 life to which it originally conduced. It is, 
 consequently, productive in itself, and in the 
 various associations of ideas connected with 
 it, of pleasure and delight to the mind. 
 Whatever the bases and causes of latent 
 heat may be in the various bodies of the 
 universe, we know that motion is the imme- 
 diately exciting occasion of warmth in them 
 all. In the animal frame the warmth of the 
 body chiefly depends upon the circulating 
 motion of the blood, which is the original 
 principle of animal life ; and this circulation 
 upon the action of the air through the lungs, 
 the operative principle of active life. In the 
 vegetable world, the circulation of the juices, 
 promoted by the action of the sun and air, 
 is the principal occasion of warmth. Besides 
 which, there are several other excitatives and 
 cherishers of warmth in animal and vegetable 
 bodies, such as voluntary motion or exercise ; 
 friction ; contact with, and impression from 
 other animal, mineral, and vegetable bodies, 
 which are made to engender and nourish 
 numerous and various degrees of warmth. 
 But it is that degree of warmth which con- 
 tributes most to the health, arid vigour, and 
 
 D 
 
38 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 well being of the animal frame that, in well 
 constituted persons, naturally produces the 
 greatest degree of pleasure to the mind; 
 whether we regard the delighted infant nest- 
 ling to its mother's side ; or the happy boy 
 exhilarating his spirits with the genial glow 
 of exercise and play ; or the youth and man- 
 hood of the kingdom enjoying themselves in 
 the fervid sports of the field; or the chilly 
 senior supplying the loss or deficiency of vital 
 heat, and thereby removing the depression of 
 his animal spirits, by the aid of denser 
 clothing and larger fires, and other artificial 
 fomentors of heat; and some of all classes 
 and ages stimulating their sluggish or feeble 
 veins with the juice of the generous vine, and 
 all the excitations which the amusements and 
 social intercourse of life supply. Thus also 
 it is that we see all nature rejoicing in the 
 return of the genial warmth of spring. But 
 when the influence of warmth amounts to 
 such a degree as to relax the vigour, and 
 tend to the destruction of animal life, it then 
 becomes proportionally painful to the senses, 
 and disagreeable to the mind of man. For 
 instance, scorching or melting heat of the 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 31) 
 
 sun or fire; the inflammatory action of a 
 fever; the scalding of any liquid; and the 
 stifling pressure of any outward fovents ap- 
 plied to the body, are productive of languor, 
 lassitude, or pain to the body ; of depression, 
 acerbation, and anguish of spirit; and re- 
 quire to be counteracted or mitigated by 
 refrigerants of a natural or artificial kind, 
 which, as soon as they act beneficially on the 
 system, restore the equilibrium of the animal 
 spirits. 
 
 Cold, on the other hand, and in proportion 
 to its intensity, as it tends to impede the vital 
 motions, and to deprive the body of animal 
 life, is painful to the sense of feeling, and 
 disagreeable to the human mind. These 
 remarks on the different effects of warmth 
 and cold, as affecting the spirits of man, 
 immediately through the sense of feeling — 
 the readiest and most powerful medium by 
 which they can at all be reached — are trite 
 and obvious enough ; and only require to be 
 mentioned in order to be fully and instantly 
 admitted. But the same effects are pro- 
 duced, although in a less degree, by means 
 of the faculty of sight, in the contemplation 
 
40 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 of outward objects, according as they present 
 to our minds the associate ideas of warmth 
 or cold, on the one hand genial and refrige- 
 rating, on the other injuriously intense. 
 
 Thus the ruddy tint of the cheeks, and 
 lips, and nails, is called " an animated glow," 
 as denoting the vigour and warmth of life; 
 and the rosy colour that pervades the summer 
 evening's sky has obtained the same appella- 
 tion from the kindred idea of solar warmth 
 which it denotes. It is the same with the 
 warmth expressed by the human eye, and by 
 many animate objects, upon which the bright 
 and richest dyes of nature are reflected or 
 expressed. Whenever they convey an idea 
 of genial and animating warmth, they excite 
 sensations of pleasure in the beholder's mind. 
 " A ha!" says the sacred volume, " I am 
 warm, I have seen the fire." I have seen it, 
 as though the sensation of warmth were 
 excited by the mere sight of the wonted 
 occasion, and a corresponding emotion of 
 pleasure were thereby produced. 
 
 Whilst the outward symptoms of inflam- 
 matory action in the human countenance, as 
 denoting what is injurious to health and life ; 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 41 
 
 or of scorching and burning heat in the ma- 
 terial world, which are destructive to out- 
 ward things, are productive of anxious, or 
 fearful, or painful emotions in the mind of 
 the spectator. On the same principle, the 
 appearance of a dull aspect and heavy eye in 
 man, betokening as they do a deficiency of 
 vital heat, are naturally unpleasant to behold. 
 And in general, a grave and dull surface of 
 material things, associated as it is with our 
 notions and experience of cold, naturally 
 occasions the same kind of sad and unplea- 
 sant sensations in the mind, whatever modi- 
 fications they may undergo, and however 
 they may be superseded or controlled, by 
 other considerations. 
 
 The Atmospheric Amis sensibly, I should 
 say palpably, adapted to cherish the vital 
 powers; to invigorate the active habits of 
 animals, plants, and vegetables; to refresh 
 them when growing languid ; to revive them 
 when going to decay. It may indeed be 
 sometimes too hot, and at other times too 
 cold, and thereby prove proportionally inju- 
 rious to animal and vegetable life and vigour; 
 and sometimes be rendered oppressive or 
 
42 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 deletereous by being tainted with corrupted 
 matter. But, in its general state, it is highly 
 beneficial to the inhabitants, animals, and 
 plants of the several countries to which it is 
 proper or circumambient, unless they happen 
 to be sickly or diseased ; and in that case, it 
 is but to change their place for some other 
 atmosphere, which may generally be found 
 to restore, or improve their health. And 
 hence the air, so far as it is found to agree 
 with the subject, or conduce to its existence 
 and well being here, is productive of plea- 
 surable sensations to the body, and of senti- 
 ments of joy and delight to the mind. Nor 
 is this to be wondered at ; as we know that 
 this is the operative principle of animal life, 
 since " God breathed into his nostrils the 
 breath of life, and man became thereby a 
 living soul." And the last exspiration of 
 that breath is immediately followed by the 
 death of the body. Thus it is called " the 
 vital air;" and the act of dying is called 
 " giving up the ghost," or spirit, or breath, 
 which are altogether synonymous terms 
 0*3?. OY 1 ) in the original language. The 
 sensations of pleasure and of joy which men 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 43 
 
 in general are wont to experience on going 
 to inhale and receive the impressions of a 
 genial air, are not only entertained within the 
 breast, and declared by the testimony of the 
 human tongue, but are manifested by the 
 grateful symptoms of their salutary counte- 
 nances and exhilarating looks. And the 
 vegetable race are not more backward than 
 the animal in shewing, by their healthy as- 
 pects and lively colours, the grateful and 
 agreeable sensations which they experience 
 from the influence of the atmospheric air. 
 
 Another indication of life is that of Sound, 
 for where sound is there is motion to produce 
 it, and motion is shewn to be an indication 
 of life. Nor is it only thus impulsively and 
 secondarily that sound is occasioned to indi- 
 cate life; but in many instances it is so 
 immediately, either as proceeding directly 
 from vital action properly so called, or from 
 the action of a vital agent as such. An 
 instance of sound proceeding directly from 
 vital action properly so called, is recognised 
 in the customary breathing of a living crea- 
 ture; and we judge as correctly and confi- 
 dently of the vitality of the subject by the 
 
44 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 sound of his breathing, as we do by the 
 throbbing emotion of his heart. 
 
 Of sounds which proceed from the actions 
 of a vital agent as such, that of the human 
 voice, or of the brute creation is the most 
 certain and convincing ; those of music the 
 next ; and then those which are produced by 
 the various operations of the human hand, or 
 instruments composed by human skill. The 
 sound of elementary motion— of water, air, 
 and heat, is, in a remoter degree, but still in 
 a manner indicative of life, inasmuch as those 
 elementary motions by which they are pro- 
 duced are means absolutely necessary to the 
 preservation and health of both animal and 
 vegetable life. 
 
 This physical property of sound, acting 
 upon the human frame, affects the sense of 
 hearing; and according to the modulations 
 and combinations of its tones, produces emo- 
 tions and sensations of pleasure and delight 
 on the one hand, of pain and unpleasantness 
 on the other. If we intimately consider the 
 matter, we shall find that perfect silence 
 is naturally as abhorrent to man as perfect 
 stillness, being equally with that an image 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 45 
 
 and indication of death. For though we are 
 frequently desirous of being left in what we 
 are accustomed to call a perfect silence, as 
 in what we term a perfect stillness — espe- 
 cially when we seek a remission from too 
 great noise and tumult, in order that we may 
 meditate or perform any work alone and free 
 from all disturbance : yet were it not for 
 some slight sound, such as that which the 
 flame or embers produce, or the passage of 
 the wind, or the impression of our pen in 
 writing, or the ticking of a watch under our 
 pillow occasions, or even that produced by 
 our own breathing, we should find such 
 silence intolerable to our mind. As nature 
 herself abhors an absolute vacuum in any 
 part of her elementary composition, so does 
 the sentient creature abhor a total cessation 
 of the natural elementary actions. Nature 
 may contract and expand, condense and 
 rarefy her elementary matter ; but she never 
 leaves an utter vacancy of space either in her 
 solid or fluid bodies. The Creator hath so 
 arranged and so adapted it to the conserva- 
 tion and healthy operations of the universal 
 frame. 
 
46 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 In like manner she may increase or dimi- 
 nish her moving forces, and produce a cor- 
 responding difference of effects upon the 
 several bodies that are placed within the 
 sphere of her various actions, and upon the 
 senses of the human body among the rest. 
 But she is never without some activity, nor 
 consequently without some degree of effect 
 upon all the organs of sense that are not 
 entirely sealed against impression. So like- 
 wise hath the Almighty Creator thus adapted 
 it to the nature and supply of our vital 
 wants. 
 
 Of simple sounds, those which are gentle, 
 clear, sweet, and moderately slow, appear to 
 be naturally agreeable to all persons of 
 healthy organs, as is shewn by the different 
 effects of different sounds on children in par- 
 ticular, and on adult persons of all ages in 
 general. 
 
 Clearness of voice is a sign of healthy 
 organs, and universally agreeable : gentle- 
 ness and sweetness indicate a kind disposi- 
 tion on the part of the speaker, and are 
 duly appreciated as such even by the most 
 infantine ear ; whilst a moderately slow move- 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 47 
 
 ment is pleasing to all who are old enough 
 to perceive that it expresses a freedom from 
 all inordinate passion of mind, and at the 
 same time does not fatigue, or hurry and 
 discompose the mind of the hearer. That 
 such qualities in the sound of the human 
 voice are universally acknowledged to be 
 pleasing to the human ear, is plainly shewn 
 by the pains which all men take to speak in 
 those tones of voice when they wish to make 
 a favourable impression upon the listener's 
 mind. 
 
 On the contrary, harsh, rough, drawling, 
 and impetuous tones are in themselves uni- 
 versally disagreeable to the human ear, as 
 proceeding from corresponding tones of mind 
 in the speaker, and indicating for the most 
 part an ill disposition towards the hearer. 
 
 The modulation of the voice to higher, 
 lower, louder, or feebler tones, whether 
 lively and joyful, or plaintive and mournful, 
 as expressive of different passions and dispo- 
 sitions in the speaker, affects the mind ac- 
 cordingly with various impressions, which 
 will always be modified and controlled by the 
 state of the listener's mind and nerves at the 
 
48 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 time of hearing, and no less by the association 
 of ideas which they are wont to excite with 
 respect to past events, present affections, 
 absent scenes, and different objects. All 
 which, with the exception of what relates to 
 the nervous state of the hearer, Alison has 
 sufficiently stated, and I may say satisfactorily 
 demonstrated, in his chapters on " The Sub- 
 limity and Beauty of Simple Sounds," where 
 almost every thing else that is worthy of 
 notice on the subject will probably be found. 
 I shall not stop to enquire in what particular 
 manner the undulatory spherical vibrations 
 of sound act upon the auditory nerve, and 
 thereby convey their images to the appre- 
 hension of the mind, which any good treatise 
 on acoustics will sufficiently explain. But I 
 will add of my own opinion that they seem 
 to act simultaneously or instantaneously on 
 the systolic and diastolic action of the heart, 
 thereby quickening or retarding the circula- 
 tion of the blood; raising or depressing, 
 hardening or softening the arterial pulsations, 
 and in like manner affecting the veins, ac- 
 cording as those spherical vibrations of sound 
 are faster or slower, stronger or weaker, and 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 49 
 
 also according to the peculiar quality of the 
 sound itself. And hence they are productive 
 not only of different emotions, sensations, 
 and passions in the mind ; but also of corres- 
 ponding effects on the animal spirits and 
 health of the body. 
 
 Whatever sounds conduce to exhilarate 
 the depressed spirits of man, to soothe his 
 agitated nerves, or to moderate his inordinate 
 passions, as they are so far beneficial to his 
 existence and welfare, so are they productive 
 of pleasure and delight to the mind. 
 
 I shall very briefly take notice of Odours 
 and Savours, as being a merely sensual and 
 inferior kind of objects, though not unpro- 
 ductive of a suitable relish and enjoyment on 
 the one hand, as the creatures of a wise and 
 benevolent God, who made them for our use, 
 and to be received by us with corresponding 
 thanksgiving ; and of as much disrelish and 
 unpleasantness on the other. 
 
 And this relish and disrelish which our 
 nostrils and palates entertain for particular 
 odours and savours of various sorts, or for 
 the same odours and savours under different 
 circumstances, is not without indication to 
 
50 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 man or beast of what is salutary, and what 
 injurious, to the life and welfare of either. 
 The taste and smell, as well as the other 
 senses, acting as sentinels to the animal soul, 
 to give it warning of what is friendly, and 
 what is hostile, in outward material things. 
 
 Some odours, as of flowers, and especially 
 that of the rose and violet, the jasmine and 
 the eglantine, are almost universally agree- 
 able to the human sense. And certain sa- 
 vours, as of common salt, and mixtures of 
 certain sweets and milder acids are generally 
 agreeable to the human palate. Nor are 
 they less healthy than pleasant; for they 
 both refresh and soothe the spirits, and are 
 spoken of in sacred and profane writers as 
 occasioning such salutary and agreeable 
 effects. 
 
 The inferiority to the rest of the senses of 
 touching, smelling, and tasting, is evinced 
 not only by the fact that the objects of those 
 senses are in all cases embraced by them 
 under the mere impulse of animal propensity 
 in common with the brute ; but the more 
 those senses are indulged, the more blunted 
 and at length disabled they become in the 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 51 
 
 force of their perceptions. Thus the de- 
 bauchee, the epicure, the fastidious in scents 
 have their senses almost deadened, and ren- 
 dered almost powerless by over indulgence. 
 And furthermore, although the perceptions 
 of taste, and touch, and smell are really in 
 the mind, as well as the perceptions of the 
 other senses ; yet so simple and gross are 
 those perceptions, that it requires all the 
 force of philosophical argument to convince 
 us that they do not rest and terminate in 
 their respective organs of sense, but are 
 finally transferred by those organs to the 
 inward mind. Whereas the eye and ear are 
 wont to call in art and science to their aid ; 
 and by long and frequent exercise do but the 
 more improve their natural perceptions of 
 those objects on which they are employed. 
 For instance, an attentive application to 
 painting, music, &c. will improve the eye 
 and ear of the student, whilst his judgment 
 tries the objects of those organs by the rules 
 of art and the principles of science. The 
 reasoning mind is in general the guide, and 
 director, and judge of those transactions 
 in which the eye and ear are engaged ; and 
 
52 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 is more evidently affected by those impres- 
 sions which it receives through the organs of 
 sight and hearing, than it is by those which 
 it derives through the agency of touch, and 
 taste, and smell. 
 
 This distinction between the dignity and 
 exercise of the different senses, and the 
 rational and moral uses which may thence be 
 derived, is so clearly and admirably expressed 
 by the celebrated Lord Karnes in the intro- 
 duction to his "Elements of Criticism," that 
 I shall herewith supply the reader with such 
 of his judicious remarks as seem most perti- 
 nent to this work in general, and this portion 
 of it in particular. 
 
 " That nothing external is perceived till 
 first it make an impression upon the organ 
 of sense, is an observation chat holds equally 
 in every one of the external senses. But 
 there is a difference as to our knowledge of 
 that impression : in touching, tasting, and 
 smelling,' we are sensible of the impression ; 
 that, for example, which is made upon the 
 hand by a stone, upon the palate by an 
 apricot, and upon the nostrils by a rose : it 
 is otherwise in seeing and hearing ; for I am 
 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 53 
 
 not sensible of the impression made upon my 
 eye when I behold a tree ; nor of the im- 
 pression made upon my ear when I listen to 
 a song. That difference in manner of per- 
 ceiving external objects, distinguisheth re- 
 markably hearing and seeing from the other 
 senses ; and I am ready to shew, that it dis- 
 tinguisheth still more remarkably the feelings 
 of the former from that of the latter ; every 
 feeling, pleasant or painful, must be in the 
 mind ; and yet, because in tasting, touching, 
 and smelling, we are sensible of the impres- 
 sion made upon the organ, we are led to 
 place there also the pleasant or painful feel- 
 ing caused by that impression; but with 
 respect to seeing and hearing, being insen- 
 sible of the organic impression, we are not 
 misled to assign a wrong place to the plea- 
 sant or painful feelings caused by that im- 
 pression; and therefore we naturally place 
 them in the mind where they are. Upon 
 that account they are conceived to be more 
 refined and spiritual, than what are derived 
 from tasting, touching, and smelling ; for the 
 latter feelings, seeming to exist externally at 
 the organs of sense, are conceived to be 
 merely corporeal. 
 
 E 
 
54 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 " The pleasures of the eye and the ear 
 being thus elevated above those of the other 
 external senses, acquire so much dignity as 
 to become a laudable entertainment. They 
 are not, however, set on a level with the 
 purely intellectual ; being no less inferior in 
 dignity to the intellectual pleasures, than 
 superior to the organic or corporeal. They 
 indeed resemble the latter, being, like them, 
 produced by external objects ; but they also 
 resemble the former, being, like them, pro- 
 duced without any sensible organic impres- 
 sion. This mixed nature and middle place 
 between organic and intellectual pleasures, 
 qualify them to associate with both. Beauty 
 heightens all the organic feelings, as well as 
 the intellectual: harmony, though it aspires 
 to inflame devotion, disdains not to improve 
 the relish of a banquet. 
 
 " The pleasures of the eye and the ear 
 have other valuable properties beside those 
 of dignity and elevation : being sweet and 
 moderately exhilarating, they are in their 
 tone equally distant from the turbulence of 
 passion, and the languor of indolence ; and 
 by that tone are perfectly well qualified, not 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 5o 
 
 only to revive the spirits when sunk, &c. &c, 
 but also to relax them when overstrained in 
 any violent pursuit. Here is a remedy 
 provided for many distresses ; and to be con- 
 vinced of its salutary effects, it will be suffi- 
 cient to run over the following particulars. 
 # # # A n y intense exercise of intellectual 
 powers becomes painful by overstraining the 
 mind: cessation from such exercise gives 
 not instant relief, it is necessary that the 
 void be filled with some amusement, gently 
 relaxing the spirits. Organic pleasure, &c. 
 is ill qualified for that office ; but the finer 
 pleasures of sense, which occupy, without 
 exhausting the mind, are finely qualified to 
 restore its usual tone after severe application 
 to study or business, &c. &c. 
 
 " Our first perceptions are of external 
 objects, and our first attachments are to 
 them. Organic pleasures take the lead ; but 
 the mind gradually ripening, relisheth more 
 and more the pleasures of the eye and ear ; 
 which approach the purely mental without 
 exhausting the spirits, and exceed the purely 
 sensual without danger of satiety. 
 
 " The pleasures of the eye and ear have 
 
56 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 accordingly a natural aptitude to withdraw 
 us from the immoderate gratification of sen- 
 sual appetite; and the mind, once accus- 
 tomed to enjoy a variety of external objects, 
 without being sensible of the organic impres- 
 sion, is prepared for enjoying internal objects 
 where there cannot be an organic impression. 
 Thus the Author of nature, by qualifying 
 the human mind for a succession of enjoy- 
 ments from low to high, leads it by gentle 
 steps from the most grovelling corporeal 
 pleasures, for which only it is fitted in the 
 beginning of life, to those refined and sublime 
 pleasures that are suited to its maturity. 
 
 " But we are not bound down to this suc- 
 cession by any law of necessity. The God 
 of nature offers it to us in order to advance 
 our happiness; and it is sufficient that he 
 hath enabled us to carry it on in a natural 
 course. Nor has he made our task either 
 disagreeable or difficult : on the contrary, 
 the transition is sweet and easy from corpo- 
 real pleasures to the more refined pleasures 
 of sense ; and no less so from these to the 
 more exalted pleasures of morality and reli- 
 gion. We stand, therefore, engaged in honour 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 57 
 
 as well as interest, to second the purposes of 
 nature, by cultivating the pleasures of the 
 eye and ear — those especially that require 
 extraordinary culture, such as arise from 
 poetry, painting, sculpture, music, gardening, 
 and architecture. This especially is the 
 duty of the opulent, who have leisure to 
 improve their minds and their feelings. The 
 fine arts are contrived to give pleasure to 
 the eye and ear, disregarding the inferior 
 ones. A taste for these arts is a plant that 
 grows naturally in many soils ; but, without 
 culture, scarce to perfection in any soil: it 
 is susceptible of much refinement, and is, by 
 proper care, greatly improved. In this 
 respect a taste for the fine arts goes hand in 
 hand with the moral sense, to which, indeed, 
 it is nearly allied: both of them discover 
 what is right and what is wrong. Fashion, 
 temper, and education have an influence to 
 vitiate both, or to preserve them pure and 
 untainted : neither of them are arbitrary or 
 local; being rooted in human nature, and 
 governed by principles common to all men, 
 &c. &c. Thus the fine arts, like morals, 
 become a rational science ; and, like morals, 
 
58 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 may be cultivated to a high degree of refine- 
 ment. 
 
 " A just taste of the fine arts derived from 
 rational principles, furnishes elegant subjects 
 for conversation, and prepares us for acting 
 in the social state with dignity and propriety. 
 The science of rational criticism tends to 
 improve the heart, no less than the under- 
 standing. It tends, in the first place, to 
 moderate the selfish affections : by sweeten- 
 ing and harmonizing the temper, it is a 
 strong antidote to the turbulence of passion 
 and violence of pursuit : it procures to a man 
 so much mental enjoyment, that, in order to 
 be occupied, he is not tempted to deliver up 
 his youth to hunting, gaming, drinking : nor 
 his middle age to ambition, nor his old age 
 to avarice. 
 
 " In the next place, delicacy of taste tends 
 no less to invigorate the social affections, 
 than to moderate those that are selfish. To 
 be convinced of that tendency, we need only 
 reflect, that delicacy of taste necessarily 
 heightens our feeling of pain and pleasure ; 
 and of course our sympathy, which is the 
 capital branch of every social passion. Sym- 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 59 
 
 pathy invites a communication of joys and 
 sorrows, hopes and fears : such exercise, 
 soothing and satisfactory in itself, is neces- 
 sarily productive of mutual good will and 
 affection. 
 
 " One other advantage of rational criti- 
 cism is reserved to the last place, being of 
 all the most important; which is, that it is 
 a great support to morality. I insist on it 
 with entire satisfaction, that no occupation 
 attaches a man more to his duty than that of 
 cultivating a taste in the fine arts; a just 
 relish of what is beautiful, proper, elegant, 
 and ornamental in writing or painting, in 
 architecture or gardening, is a fine prepara- 
 tion for the same just relish of these qualities 
 in character and behaviour." 
 
PART II. 
 
 WERE I to close my Thesis at the 
 point to which I have hitherto brought 
 it, I might justly claim the distinction of 
 having elucidated a mystery in metaphysical 
 science, which has confessedly baffled the 
 inquiries of the most laborious and patient 
 investigators of the laws by which our minds 
 are moved and governed; has puzzled the 
 surmises of the most subtle geniuses of every 
 age and country ; and has left one of the most 
 noble and interesting studies in an almost 
 hopeless state of confusion and uncertainty, 
 and consequently of imperfection. 
 
 The accomplishment of such a desideratum 
 to the world of letters might alone suffice to 
 feed the vanity, or gratify the ambition, of 
 the keenest aspirant after human fame and 
 literary celebrity; nor is such a distinction 
 to be repudiated with scorn, or lightly es- 
 
62 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 teemed by any of the sons of men, if it be 
 referred with humility and gratitude to the 
 Author and Giver of all wisdom, as the 
 source and fountain from which it was re- 
 ceived. 
 
 But were I indeed to close my Thesis 
 here, and thereby terminate the view of this 
 most interesting subject with a reference 
 only, or principally, to our first natural 
 emotions and sensations of pleasure and 
 delight — as resulting from physical causes, I 
 should be treating the matter in a manner 
 altogether unworthy of a Christian Philo- 
 sopher; scarcely superior to a Mahometan 
 Reverist ; and certainly beneath the practice 
 of some of the heathen sages, of Cicero 
 at least, if not of others. 
 
 It is a circumstance therefore of the highest 
 gratification to my mind, that I can pro- 
 ceed with the utmost confidence to shew, 
 that the fact of our emotions and sensations 
 of pleasure and delight being principally 
 referrible to vital apprehension, may be 
 brought to bear with a powerful and salutary 
 effect upon the revelation of our Christian 
 Faith, no less clearly and distinctly, than it 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 63 
 
 can upon our rational and scientific know- 
 ledge, as well as upon our natural apprehen- 
 sion of things. 
 
 Had there been any appearance, much 
 more any proof of dissonance, in this respect, 
 with the line of argument which I have 
 heretofore pursued, it would have been as 
 destructive to my confidence, as well as to 
 the gratification which I have all along felt 
 in following that line. 
 
 But the perfect agreement which subsists 
 between the one and the other, not only 
 helps to confirm the accuracy of my theory, 
 but likewise serves to shew that it is the 
 same God who wrote the book of Nature, 
 that engraved the principles of reason and 
 science, and composed the work of Revelation 
 for the study of the human mind, and the 
 benefit of the human race. 
 
 And, following this ascending series, I 
 proceed without further delay, in pursuing 
 these investigations, to lead my readers on 
 through the walks of reason and science, 
 from Nature up to Nature's God, from 
 earthly to celestial views, from objects of 
 sense to those of faith ; from such as are 
 
C4 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 transient, corruptible, and unsatisfying, to 
 those which are permanent, unchangeable, 
 and full of joy. 
 
 To proceed then, with the rational powers 
 of man, which are the next higher in order 
 and dignity to those which are merely phy- 
 sical, but are previous and inferior to those 
 of a spiritual faith. For — besides the five 
 organs of sense properly so called, by which 
 man is enabled to exercise the respective 
 faculties of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, 
 and feeling ; and to which (as I hope I have 
 shewn) the Author of Nature hath so 
 adapted the external things of this visible 
 world, that, in proportion as they exhibit the 
 qualities and accidents of a prosperous ex- 
 istence in themselves, or serve to preserve, 
 support, or comfort this present life in us; 
 so far do they produce in our minds the 
 emotions and sensations of pleasure and 
 delight — his Divine Creator hath also en- 
 dowed him with the higher faculty of reason, 
 by which he is rendered capable of discerning 
 and estimating the peculiar properties of all 
 sensible things: so that he not only derives 
 emotions and sensations of pleasure and 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 65 
 
 delight therefrom, through those instinctive 
 animal impressions which he immediately 
 receives from them, by the instrumentality 
 of his outward senses; but he also derives, 
 through this superior faculty, an intellectual 
 addition to his enjoyment, from the very per- 
 ception and estimation which it affords of 
 their respective qualities. 
 
 He now not only feels the impressions 
 which they make; but he knows that they 
 make such impressions, and perceives the 
 nature of the objects, and understands the 
 reason wherefore, and the mode and operation 
 by which they act upon his mind. 
 
 This enables him to seek and choose his 
 objects, to lessen or increase, to counteract 
 or neutralize ; in short, to regulate and 
 modify their several impressions, according 
 as his present or prospective interests may 
 suggest. 
 
 And this prospective regard to his future 
 and permanent pleasure in life, in continuance 
 with, or in preference to his present gratifi- 
 cation, is the best result of his reasoning 
 faculty, and its principal excellency over his 
 animal propensions. 
 
GO PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 Hence it is that he forms those notions of 
 adaptation, fitness, propriety, analogy, pro- 
 portion, and harmony in sensible things, as 
 contributing to the beauty of the object itself 
 and the pleasure and delight of the observer's 
 mind ; though all of them are still subservient 
 to the prosperous existence of the former, or 
 the vital welfare of the latter. 
 
 The faculty of reason being inherent in 
 him, and therefore cotemporary with his 
 physical powers, might, if it could be ex- 
 ercised as soon and as much as they, con- 
 tribute equally in time and degree to the 
 specified emotions and sensations of pleasure 
 and delight, in the contemplation and esti- 
 mation of material things. But as the 
 original strength of the faculty is different in 
 different persons, and variously proportioned 
 to their physical powers, and diversely ex- 
 ercised in different persons in relation to 
 their respective powers, and in the same 
 person differently at different times, it neces- 
 sarily follows that, the specified emotions 
 and sensations of pleasure and delight in 
 present objects of sense will be variously 
 modified, according to the knowledge, science, 
 
TN THE HUMAN MIND. 61 
 
 and experience which the beholder himself 
 has, by application and instruction, gained, 
 for rightly estimating those objects, and to 
 the degree in which he exercises these his 
 rational endowments. 
 
 Endued with these instinctive and rational 
 faculties, and under the influence of the 
 aforementioned motives, we see him engaged 
 in all the arts and operations of human life, 
 from those of the savage employed in the 
 forest or mountain chase, in searching the 
 rivers and maritime coasts for food, and 
 retiring at night for rest to his wigwam hut ; 
 or the Arab wandering with his flocks and 
 herds, and sojourning the while in moveable 
 tents ; to the more settled and civilized races 
 of men, who dwell in fixed habitations on 
 land, or traverse the wide ocean in well 
 appointed ships, engaging themselves in 
 agriculture and commerce, and in all the 
 arts and sciences, trades and professions of 
 humankind. 
 
 Wealth and property, honour and glory, 
 elevation and dignity, may be the immediate 
 objects which they respectively have in view ; 
 but these only as means to an end ; that they 
 
68 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 may make them subservient to the welfare 
 and comfort, to the pleasure and enjoyment 
 of human life. 
 
 For the same reason it is that man enters 
 into social converse, and unites in forming 
 societies amongst his fellow creatures — that 
 they may mutually contribute to the preserv- 
 ation and welfare, to the pleasure and satis- 
 faction of life. And in all these cases it 
 therefore ensues that, in proportion as persons 
 and things contribute and subserve to this 
 chief and comprehensive object, whether by 
 general or peculiar adaptation to the wants 
 and desires, the disposition or taste, the cir- 
 cumstances or humour of the man ; in that 
 proportion does he admire, and delight him- 
 self in them, physically, rationally, and mo- 
 rally, singly or combined. 
 
 The Almighty, wise, and benevolent Cre- 
 ator hath so multiplied the varieties of his 
 creatures, and the dispositions, circumstances, 
 and conditions of those creatures ; and hath 
 so adapted every one of their natures and 
 qualities to their appropriate objects, that 
 there is ample room for every one to suit his 
 propensities and tastes, in the midst of so 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 69 
 
 vast a variety as are here provided for man, 
 as well on physical, as on rational and moral 
 grounds. Whilst, at the same time, this 
 very multiplicity and variety affords an ample 
 means, as wisely and benevolently designed, 
 to call forth the powers, to stimulate the 
 energies, and to elicit the pursuits of the 
 sons of men, in all those labours and enter- 
 prizes which are given them to be exercised 
 therewith. 
 
 And had his reason remained unimpaired, 
 as it was at the first, he might thereby have 
 not only discerned, but also followed that 
 particular mode and course of conduct which 
 would certainly have ensured him the greatest 
 advantages and happiness of the life that now 
 is, and of that which is to come. 
 
 But the understanding having been weak- 
 ened and clouded, and the will having been 
 depraved by the commission and effects of 
 sin; he required a clearer, stronger, and 
 more stable faculty, than that of his obscured 
 and wayward reason, to direct him in the 
 choice, and support him in the pursuit of his 
 true and lasting interests ; and, consequently, 
 of procuring him pure and permanent delight. 
 
70 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 This faculty was supplied him by the gift 
 of Faith, which enables men, by means of 
 Divine Revelation, to see the true nature and 
 qualities, relations and consequences both of 
 present and future things ; and, in proportion 
 as it is exercised and improved, to choose 
 and pursue the good, to decline and reject the 
 evil ; or in other words, to choose and pursue 
 those things which tend most to their pre- 
 servation and well being in this life, and also 
 in the world to come. 
 
 To this special faculty it is that God 
 chiefly proposes the objects and means of a 
 delightful and happy life, comparatively so 
 here, perfectly so hereafter ; not without some 
 regard to the instincts of man's nature, and 
 still less in opposition to his right reason ; but 
 only to the proper regulation of the one, and 
 the enlightening and guiding of the other. 
 
 And if we take an intimate and continual 
 survey of the whole story and tenor of 
 revelation, we shall find that life — natural, 
 spiritual, or eternal, is proposed by the 
 Father and the Son as the primary gift, the 
 main endowment, the leading object, the 
 ultimate scope of the human race ; and that 
 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 71 
 
 whatever images and things exhibit or pro- 
 mote the conservation and welfare thereof, 
 are pourtrayed to the eye and the mind as 
 objects of beauty, pleasure, and delight. For 
 no sooner had God created man out of the 
 dust of the ground, than he breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life, and man became a 
 living soul. 
 
 And to support, and no less to crown that 
 life with pleasure and delight, he had gra- 
 ciously provided for him the fruits, and shrubs, 
 and flowers of the Garden of Eden ; and 
 immediately added the company of a kindred 
 being to associate and participate with him 
 in all the occupations and enjoyments of his 
 life. A being, so tender and fragile as to 
 engage his constant care ; so bland and 
 gentle as to sweeten all his converse ; so 
 adapted for love and procreation as to win 
 his fond regard and fixed desire ; and there- 
 fore an object of the greatest beauty and 
 admiration to his sight. 
 
 To the gift and endowments of life in 
 himself, there immediately succeeds the fiat 
 of the Almighty Creator for the perpetuating 
 and multiplying this gift, by the faculty of 
 
72 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 procreation bestowed upon Adam, " Increase, 
 and multiply, and replenish the earth." And 
 for the sustenance and enjoyment of such 
 an increase, was added thereto this accom- 
 panying blessing, " Have dominion over it, 
 and subdue it," &c. 
 
 To the gift of the animal, w r as added the 
 endowment of the rational faculty, for the 
 true perception and just estimation of all 
 those things which serve for the preservation 
 and enjoyment of life, as evidently set forth 
 in that description of Adam being called 
 upon to give names to all the several creatures, 
 according to their respective qualities. 
 
 The life spiritual is evinced in that inter- 
 course and communion which he is signified 
 to have held with his Maker and Preserver, 
 before he fled from his presence with shame 
 and fear — unhappy substitutes for those 
 previous sentiments of pleasure and delight 
 which he must have entertained in his primi- 
 tive state of pure and confidential worship! 
 
 The life immortal was at least indicated 
 to him in the converse of that fearful denun- 
 ciation, " In the day in which thou eat est 
 thereof thou shalt surely die." 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 73 
 
 Thus, at the first creation of man, the 
 direction was, " This do, and thou shalt 
 live ;" live in happiness, live eternally. 
 
 The pleasures of sense were placed before 
 him, the joys of the spirit were equally given ; 
 he was consequently happy in body and soul ; 
 he both possessed and enjoyed " all things 
 pertaining to life and godliness." 
 
 Under the Patriarchal Dispensation, the 
 ostensible promise was confined to a posses- 
 sion on earth, both for the person himself, 
 and for his posterity after him, with the 
 Divine favour and protection to accompany 
 them whithersoever they went. 
 
 But spiritual blessings and a life to come, 
 were included and understood in these obscure 
 predictions. " Lift up thine eyes," said God 
 to Abraham, " and see ! all this land will I 
 give to thee, and to thy seed after thee. I 
 will be thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
 reward. In thee shall all the families of the 
 earth be blessed." Only " walk before me, 
 and be thou perfect." Here we behold the 
 promise, and here the condition upon which 
 it was made ; and by and by we read of the 
 effect which that promise produced. Abra- 
 
74 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 ham believed God, and it was accounted unto 
 him for righteousness ; and he became heir 
 of the righteousness which is by faith" 
 Where we see that faith was the faculty to 
 which the promise was proposed, and by 
 which that promise was embraced. 
 
 Adam had suffered the instincts of the 
 sensual appetites to overpower alike his faith 
 and reason ; and thereby incurred both for- 
 feiture and death, with the incidental evils 
 of pain and grief. 
 
 On the contrary, Abraham's faith enlight- 
 ened and supported his reason, and thereby 
 enabled him to triumph over the strongest 
 and liveliest impressions of nature — the pa- 
 rent's affection for his child, and his early 
 attachment to his friends and home, in that 
 he left his family and kindred, "not know- 
 ing whither he went ;" and offered up Isaac 
 his only and beloved son, at the instant of 
 God's command, " whereby he pleased and 
 became the friend of God ;" secured to his 
 children the enjoyment of the promised land, 
 and for himself the possession of the kingdom 
 of heaven. 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 75 
 
 Under the Law we find the same promise 
 of life, and of all those blessings which render 
 this natural life pleasant and delightful to 
 mankind, proposed as the chief, if not the 
 sole reward of piety and obedience towards 
 God; and, on the contrary, death, and all 
 those things which are most grievous and 
 painful to man denounced against those who 
 should prove rebellious and impious towards 
 their Maker. 
 
 Under the Gospel Dispensation we find that 
 life, and happiness, and joy, are the main 
 and staple promises of God to man ; and that 
 Faith, or the love of God (for as comprehen- 
 sive terms they are used promiscuously), 
 is the condition upon which the promise is 
 based, the active human cause to which the 
 promise is attached ; but with this distinction, 
 that in the New Testament the joys and delight 
 which are promised even in this life, are 
 chiefly spiritual : yet not without a sufficiency 
 of outward things, together with contentment 
 of mind. 
 
 But it is chiefly the life and happiness of 
 the world to come which are placed before 
 
76 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 the eye of a Christian's faith, and rendered 
 the desirable and influential objects of a 
 Christian's love. 
 
 And accordingly whilst we find few or no 
 descriptions of an outward state of present 
 blessedness in the scriptures of the New 
 Testament, we have more than one figurative 
 and glowing description of the visible happi- 
 ness and sensitive enjoyment of Christ's future 
 kingdom of glory depicted therein. 
 
 I say figurative ; for all those descriptions 
 are taken from present and sensible things, 
 from those which are most eagerly coveted, 
 and earnestly sought after by men in this 
 present world, as the means of affording them 
 pleasure and delight. 
 
 What the reality may be, no tongue can 
 tell, no mind conceive. But we may be 
 assured that it is of a higher and purer kind 
 than any thing which a Heathen Elysium, a 
 Turkish Paradise, or a Negro's Heaven are 
 fabled to contain. 
 
 But is a very remarkable fact, and in 
 every respect both pertinent and favourable 
 to my theory, that all those figurative de- 
 
 ; 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 77 
 
 scriptions which are given of the joys and 
 delights of heaven, are strikingly expressive 
 of the several qualities of activity or motion, 
 light and warmth, brilliancy and verdure, 
 and of the " concord of sweet sounds," which 
 I have all along instanced as the properties, 
 indications, or promoters of prosperous life ; 
 and, what is more, that the absolute power 
 of vivifying and healing others, or of vital 
 energy in themselves, are attributed to the 
 greater part, if not to all of those several 
 qualities. 
 
 Thus ' with respect to activity and motion, 
 the heavenly host are described as surrounding 
 the throne of God in one perpetual and 
 incessant course of lively ministrations ; and 
 this must necessarily be where there is 
 neither night nor sleep; neither fatigue of 
 body, nor weariness of mind to require that 
 refreshment of labour, that season of repose. 
 
 Of Light there is said to be an essential 
 and spiritual refulgence, continually emitted 
 from " the glory of the Lord," and the 
 presence of " the Lamb," throughout the 
 immensity and eternity of those blest abodes. 
 
78 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 A light " clear as crystal," warm as " the 
 jasper." The city itself is clothed with a 
 similar brilliancy and glow of glassen purity 
 and golden colour ; and is decked with every 
 variety of the most splendid gems and ore. 
 
 There is also a pure river of " water of 
 life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the 
 throne of God and the Lamb," with nothing 
 to interrupt its course, or to soil its stream. 
 
 " On either side of the river was the tree 
 of life;" that — unlike the single produce of 
 the one in Eden, which would have given an 
 immortality of sin and misery to the human 
 race, — bears twelve manner of wholesome 
 fruits; and as there is neither spring, nor 
 fall, nor summer, nor winter there, she yields 
 her fruits every month in the congenial and 
 perennial season of that unvarying clime ; 
 whilst " the leaves of the tree," which can 
 neither wither nor decay, " are for the healing 
 of the nations." 
 
 And thus, negatively, death cannot, because 
 sin cannot, enter there ; no pain, because no 
 hurt, can there be felt; no sorrow, because 
 no loss ; no grief, because no evil, can dwell 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 79 
 
 therein. But, positively, there is fulness of 
 joy and pleasure at God's right hand for 
 evermore. 
 
 Of that joy and pleasure all alike partake 
 to the utmost of their several capacities, 
 without detriment, without envy, without 
 disparagement, to each other : for there is 
 a perfect communion of spirits, as there is a 
 community of bliss therein; and the only 
 contest there, is that of love, and in serving 
 and celebrating Him from whom their perfect 
 and eternal happiness proceeds. 
 
 Therefore it follows that they who truly 
 believe and duly exercise their thoughts 
 upon the objects of Divine Revelation, have 
 so much greater pleasure and delight in the 
 apprehension and contemplation of them, 
 than they have in those of a material and 
 rational kind only, as the former surpass the 
 latter in duration, power, and virtue. 
 
 And secondarily, they will esteem and 
 admire all such spiritual qualities as reach or 
 tend to those blest abodes and objects above, 
 in so much greater a degree than they do 
 those of a merely physical or intellectual 
 
80 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 kind, as they do the heavenly objects them- 
 selves above those of an earthly and perishing 
 nature. 
 
 Thus, keeping all things present and future, 
 animal and rational, bodily and spiritual, 
 earthly and heavenly, transient and perma- 
 nent, fading and unfading, corruptible and 
 incorruptible, mortal and immortal, defective 
 and entire, in due degree and order; they 
 allow to each their proper weight and mea- 
 sure, derive from each their proper virtue 
 and influence, and so temper and regulate 
 their desires and affections, their pursuits 
 and employments, their lives and actions, as 
 to answer the ends of the great Creator, 
 Ruler, and Preserver of this material world, 
 the giver of all good things, the author of 
 all wisdom ; and, above all, <bf that gracious 
 Redeemer who has revealed to our eyes, 
 opened to our feet, purchased for our ad- 
 mission, prepared for our reception, and 
 invited us to the everlasting possession and 
 enjoyment of, the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Whilst they do not fail to acknowledge 
 and admire the physical gifts and material 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 81 
 
 workmanship of the Maker and Benefactor 
 of the world ; to use them with moderation 
 and thanksgiving ; to enter also with pleasure 
 and delight into the various paths of human 
 learning, and to relish the fruits of art and 
 science; their principal study and chief 
 delight consist in exploring the more won- 
 derful instances of Almighty wisdom in the 
 greater work of human redemption ; and in 
 meditating upon the more admirable proofs 
 of his love and goodness in the means which 
 he has ordained for the accomplishment of 
 that stupendous work; the blessings with 
 which he has crowned and consummated this 
 benevolent dispensation ; and the dispositions 
 and qualifications which render us meet to 
 be admitted, and to participate in the enjoy- 
 ments of his glorious kingdom. 
 
 Hence it is that they perceive a greater 
 charm in the deportment of a meek and 
 lowly spirit, than they do in a high and 
 haughty bearing; that patient suffering in 
 affliction appears more lovely in their view 
 than an uninterrupted state of outward pros- 
 perity; that a contented moderation in the 
 
82 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 
 
 use of this world has more beauty in their 
 eyes than the unrestrained enjoyment of the 
 greatest abundance ; that the deprecation 
 of St. Stephen on behalf of his murderers 
 is more admired by them, than the suggestions 
 of the sons of Zebedee respecting those who 
 had repudiated their master's commission; 
 that the condition of Lazarus seems infinitely 
 preferable to that of Dives; and that the 
 habitual abstinence of St. Paul is far more 
 attractive in their sight than the intemperate 
 indulgence of Portius Festus. 
 
 Nay, more, that the most cruel tortures 
 and violent deaths of the righteous are far 
 more precious in their estimation, than the 
 easiest dissolution, or even the most pros- 
 perous continuance of life, i^ the persons of 
 the wicked; that palor and sickness are 
 sometimes even more lovely than the rosiest 
 hue of health; and the extreme of pining 
 weakness to that of youthful strength; that 
 the stake, the block, and the cross, are 
 embraced with greater pleasure than the 
 wealthiest and most honourable estate which 
 this world has to offer in exchange; and 
 
IN THE HUMAN MIND. 83 
 
 finally, that the gate and valley of death 
 present a more welcome prospect, than a life 
 all redolent of physical health and worldly 
 joy alone. 
 
 And further still— not only are objects 
 more beautiful, scenes more attractive, pos- 
 sessions more valuable, acquisitions more 
 desirable, enjoyments more perfect, attain- 
 ments more honourable, dignities more ven- 
 erable, gratifications more delightful, beings 
 more admirable and more adorable, beheld 
 in that kingdom; so as fully to satisfy all 
 the instinctive longings of our nature, and 
 all the excited expectations of our minds ; 
 at present in degree, plenarily hereafter ; 
 but by reason of these we quench or mitigate., 
 we soothe or allay, we soften and sweeten, 
 and, in a thousand respects and degrees, we 
 modify all our present views, passions, and 
 affections; the greater absorbing the less, 
 the stronger subduing the weaker, the more 
 impressive affecting the more susceptible ; 
 till, as we raise the earthly to partake of the 
 heavenly, so do we bring down the heavenly 
 to temper the earthly, through the grace and 
 
84 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT. 
 
 Spirit of Him, who subjects all things in 
 heaven and earth, to his will and power. 
 
 To Him, the Supremely Wise, and Great, 
 and Good; the Creator, Ruler, and Pre- 
 server of this material world, and visible 
 scene of things ; and the Redeemer, and 
 Furnisher, and Sanctifier of the unseen 
 world of souls, be ascribed all love and 
 gratitude, dominion, praise, and glory, now 
 and for ever ! 
 
 
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