and sorrow are only the opposites of desire and joy, and must necessarily flow from their existence in a state of things in which all we meet with is not to be desired or enjoyed, it is pos sible that desire. and joy ought alone to be regarded as the proper parent stocks of all the rest. Let us examine them for a few minutes under this system of simplification.

Perhaps the oldest, simplest, and most universal passion that stirs the mind of man, is DESIRE. So universal is it, that I may confidently ask, where is the created bosom nay, where is the created being, without it? And Dryden is fully within the mark in asserting, that

Desire's the vast extent of human mind.

AVERSION, which is its opposite, is less universal, less simple, and of later birth. It is less universal, for though there is no created being exempt from it, nor ought to be so upon certain points, it is more limited in its objects and operation. It is of later date, at least among mankind, for the infant desires before it dislikes; and hence there is as much physical truth as picturesque genius in the following exhortation of Akenside, to the lovers of taste and nature:

Through all the maze

Of YOUNG DESIRE, with rival steps pursue
The charm of beauty.

And it is less simple, as being the opposite of desire, and in a certain sense flowing from it,

and connected with its existence; the whole of its empire being founded on objects and ideas that the elder passion of desire has rejected.

Now the main streams that issue from DESIRE, running in different directions, and giving rise to multitudes of secondary streams, are the three following:-LOVE, HOPE, EMULATION. Examine them attentively, and you will find, that, different as they are from each other, they all possess the sperm and parentage of DESIRE, and possess it equally.

LOVE is not simple desire, but flows from it, and is so closely connected with it, that some shade of the latter passion is, in every instance, to be found in the former. The terms are hence, in some particular senses, and especially when employed loosely, used in all languages synonymously whence EROS ('Egws) among the elegant Greeks, and CUPIDO among the Romans, was the god equally appointed to preside over both passions. It is from the latter tongue we obtain in our own language the word cupidity, which in like manner embraces both ideas. Spenser has made desire the offspring of love, rather than love the offspring of desire; but this is to invert the order of nature. The first instinctive passion discoverable in infant life, as I have already observed, is desire -a desire of satisfying the new-born sensation of hunger; and love-that is, love of the object that gratifies it, follows from the gratification itself; nor can we, through any period of life, love what in our own

estimation is undesirable. In many cases, for there are innumerable shades belonging to both, love may be regarded as the same passion as desire, but with an increase of intensity; as hatred, which is its opposite, is the same passion as aversion, but with a parallel advance in the scale. There are, however, various marks of differ ence; and I may observe, that while desire is never without a less or greater degree of uneasiness, love, though it is sometimes accompanied with the same feeling, is occasionally free from it, and always so, when perfectly genuine.

Before we proceed to the two other main branches which radiate from DESIRE, let us follow up the subsidiary streams into which the passion of LOVE ramifies. These run in two opposite directions, according as they possess a virtuous or a vicious tendency; and in each direction they are extremely prolific, and offer to us a numerous progeny. Thus, on the one hand, we behold the passion or feeling of love giving birth to charity, benevolence, philanthropy, pity, mercy, fellow-feeling, which the Latins called compassion, and the Greeks sympathy; generosity, friendship, and ardour. They form a chaste and a happy group, are full of social affection, and are hence often called, after the name of the eldest sister, the CHARITIES of life or of the heart.

Mercy, and Truth, and hospitable Care,
And kind connubial Tenderness, are there;
And Piety, with wishes placed above,
And sweetest Sympathy, and boundless Love.
GOLDSMITH, altered.

On the other hand, we behold issuing from the same source a variety of restless and turbulent affections, which, from their characteristic violence, contribute equally, perhaps, to the unhappiness of those who possess them, and to the world on which they are exercised. To this tribe belong avarice, or the love of gain; ambition, or the love of power; pride and vanity, or the love of pomp, splendour, and ostentation; selfishness, or the love of the person, in common language, self-love: though the whole of these being of a selfish character, this latter term might, with as much propriety, apply to every one of them, as that of charity or the love of others to each of the preceding division.

Most of these are admirably described or allegorised by Spenser, in his Fairie Queene, which will be found to afford a most powerful illustration of the general hints here offered. I would readily bring instances in proof of this remark if our time would allow as a single example of the force of his imagination, let me especially direct your attention to his entire delineation of avarice or mammon, and particularly the following picturesque representation of his dwelling

Both roofe and floore, and walls, were all of gold,
But overgrowne with dust and old decay,
And hid in darkness, that none could behold
The hew thereof: for vew of cherefull day
Did never in that house itselfe display,

But A FAINT SHADOW OF UNCERTAIN LIGHT:

SUCH AS A LAMP, WHOSE LIFE DOES FADE AWAY;

OR AS THE MOONE, CLOATHED WITH CLOWDY NIGHT, DOES SHEW TO HIM THAT WALKES IN FEARE AND SAD

HOPE I have enumerated as the second mainstream that emanates from the passion of DESIRE. Try the world, examine your own hearts, and you will agree with me that this is its source. Hope must spring from desire, and cannot exist without it as it rises in the scale, it becomes trust or confidence; and confidence, according to the alliance it forms with other feelings or af fections, gives birth to two very different families. United to a vigorous judgment and an ardent imagination, it produces courage, magnanimity, patience, intrepidity, enterprise; combined with vanity or self-love, the complex and mischievous brood is self-opinion, impudence, audacity, and

conceit.

Hope, however, is not produced singly. It is a twin passion, and its congenital sister is Fear. This has not been sufficiently attended to by pathognomists; but examine the general tenour and accompaniment of the passions as they rise in your hearts, and you will find the present statement correct. Hope and fear spring equally from desire the hope of gaining the desired object, and the fear of losing it. They run the same race, though with varying degrees of

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*B. ii. cant. vii. xxix.