individuals, upon the flight foundation now mentioned.

Envy is a paffion, which, being altogether unjustifiable, cannot be excused but by disguifing it under fome plaufible name. At the fame time, no paffion, is more eager than envy, to give its object a disagreeable appearance: it magnifies every bad quality, and fixes on the most humbling circumstances:

Caffius. I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life; but for my single self,

I had as lief not be, as live to be

In awe of fuch a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæfar, fo were you;
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tyber chafing with his fhores,
Cæfar fays to me, Dar'ft thou, Caffius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point ?-Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

And bid him follow; fo indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it,
With lufty finews; throwing it afide,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,
Cæfar cry'd, Help me, Caffius, or I fink.

I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchifes bear; fo from the waves of Tyber

Did

Did I the tired Cæfar: and this man

Is now become a god, and Caffius is

A wretched creature; and must bend his body,
If Cæfar carelessly but nod on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake. 'Tis true, this god did shake;
His coward lips did from their colour fly,

And that fame eye whose bend doth awe the world,
Did lofe its luftre; I did hear him groan;
Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
Alas! it cry'd-Give me fome drink, Titinius,
As a fick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of fuch a feeble temper should

So get a start of the majeftic world,

And bear the palm alone.

Julius Cafar, act 1. fc. 3.

Glo'ster inflamed with resentment against his fon Edgar, could even force himself into a momentary conviction that they were not related:

O ftrange fasten'd villain!

Would he deny his letter?—I never got him.

King Lear, a 2. fc. 3.

When by great fenfibility of heart, or other means, grief becomes immoderate, the mind, in order to justify itself, is prone to magnify the cause and if the real caufe admit not of being

magnified,

magnified, the mind feeks a caufe for its grief in imagined future events:

Bufby. Madam, your Majefty is much too fad:
You promis'd, when you parted with the King,
To lay aside felf-harming heavinefs,
And entertain a chearful disposition.

Queen. To pleafe the King, I did; to please myself,
I cannot do it. Yet I know no cause
Why I should welcome fuch a guest as grief;
Save bidding farewell to fo fweet a guest
As my sweet Richard: yet again, methinks,
Some unborn forrow, ripe in Fortune's womb,
Is coming tow'rd me; and my inward foul
With fomething trembles, yet at nothing grieves,
More than with parting from my lord the King.
Richard II. act 2. fc. 5.

Refentment at firft is vented on the relations of the offender, in order to punish him: but as refentment, when fo outrageous, is contrary to confcience, the mind, to justify its paffion, is dif posed to paint these relations in the blackest colours; and it comes at laft to be convinced, that they ought to be punished for their own demerits.

Anger raised by an accidental stroke upon a tender part of the body, is fometimes vented upon the undefigning caufe. But as the paffion in that cafe is abfurd, and as there can be no folid gratification in punishing the innocent; the mind, prone to juftify as well as to gratify its paffion, deludes itself into a conviction of the action's

action's being voluntary. The conviction, however, is but momentary: the first reflection fhows it to be erroneous; and the paffion va. nifheth almost inftantaneously with the conviction. But anger, the most violent of all paffions, has ftill greater influence it sometimes forces the mind to perfonify a stock or a stone, if it happen to occafion bodily pain, and even to believe it a voluntary agent, in order to be a proper object of refentment. And that we have really a momentary conviction of its being a voluntary agent, must be evident from confidering, that, without fuch conviction, the paffion can neither be justified nor gratified: the imagination can give no aid; for a stock or a stone imagined fenfible, cannot be an object of punish. ment, if the mind be conscious that it is an imagination merely without any reality. Of fuch. perfonification, involving a conviction of reality, there is one illuftrious inftance: when the first bridge of boats over the Hellefpont was destroyed by a storm, Xerxes fell into a transport of rage, fo exceffive, that he commanded the fea to be punished with 300 ftripes; and a pair of fetters to be thrown into it, enjoining the following words to be pronounced: "O thou "falt and bitter water! thy mafter hath condem"ned thee to this punishment for offending him " without caufe; and is refolved to pass over "thee in despite of thy infolence: with reafon

"all men neglect to facrifice to thee, becaufe "thou art both difagreeable and treacherous *.'

Shakespear exhibits beautiful examples of the irregular influence of paffion in making us believe things to be otherwise than they are. King Lear, in his diftrefs, personifies the rain, wind, and thunder; and, in order to justify his refentment, believes them to be taking part with his daughters:

Lear. Rumble thy belly-full, fpit fire, fpout rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters. I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; I never gave you kingdoms, call'd you children; You owe me no fubfcription. Then let fall Your horrible pleasure.Here I ftand, your brave; A poor, infirm, weak, and defpis'd old man! But yet I call you fervile minifters, That have with two pernicious daughters join'd Your high engender'd battles, 'gainst a head So old and white as this. Oh! oh! 'tis foul! Act 3. f. 2.

King Richard, full of indignation against his favourite horse for carrying Bolingbroke, is led into the conviction of his being rational :

Groom. O, how it'yearn'd my heart, when I beheld In London ftreets, that coronation-day,

When Bolingbroke rode on Roan Barbary,
That horfe that thou fo often haft beftrid,

That horfe that I fo carefully have dreffed.

Herodotus, book 7.

K. Rich.