Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

of the past upon our minds, with that of the future, it appears in general, that if the evidence, the importance, and the diftance of the objects be equal, the latter will be greater than the former. The reason, I imagine, is, we are confcious, that as every moment, the future, which feems placed before us, is approaching; and the paft, which lies, as it were, behind, is retiring, our nearness or relation to the one conftantly increaseth as the other decreafeth. There is fomething like attraction in the first cafe, and repulfion in the fecond. This tends to interest us more in the future than in the paft, and consequently to the present view aggrandizes the one and diminishes the other.

WHAT, nevertheless, gives the past a very confiderable advantage, is its being generally fufceptible of much stronger evidence than the future. The lights of the mind are, if I may fo exprefs myself, in an oppofite fituation to the lights of the body. These discover clearly the profpect lying before us, but not the ground we have already paffed. By the memory, on the contrary, that great luminary of the mind, things paft are exhibited in retrospect; we have no correfpondent faculty to irradiate the future: and

even in matters which fall not within the reach of our memory, paft events are often clearly dif coverable by teftimony, and by effects at present exifting; whereas, we have nothing equivalent to found our arguments upon in reafoning about things to come. It is for this reafon, that the future is confidered as the province of conjecture and uncertainty.

PART V. Connexion of Place.

LOCAL connexion, the fifth in the above enumeration, hath a more powerful effect than proximity of time. Duration and space are two things, (call them entities, or attributes, or what you please) in fome refpects the moft like, and in fome refpects the most unlike to one another. They resemble in continuity, divifibility, infinity, in their being deemed effential to the exiftence of other things, and in the doubts that have 'been raised as to their having a real or independent existence of their own. They differ in that the latter is permanent, whereas the very effence of the former confifteth in tranfitorinefs; the parts of the one are all fucceffive, of the other all co-exiftent. The greater portions of time are all diftinguished by the memorable things which have been tranfacted in them, the fmaller por

tions by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies: the portions of place, great and small, (for we do not here confider the regions of the fixed ftars and planets) are diftinguithed by the various tracts of land and water, into which the earth is divided, and fubdivided; the one diftinction intelligible, the other fenfible; the one chiefly known to the inquifitive, the other in a great measure obvious to all.

HENCE perhaps it arifes, that the latter is confidered as a firmer ground of relation, than the former. Who is not more curious to know the notable tranfactions which have happened in his own country from the earliest antiquity, than to be acquainted with those which have happened in the remoteft regions of the globe, during the century wherein he lives? It must be owned, however, that the former circumftance is more frequently aided by that of personal relation than the latter. Connexion of place not only includes vicinage, but every other local relation, fuch as being in a province under the fame government with us, in a state that is in alliance with us, in a country well known to us, and the like. Of the influence of this connexion in operating on our paffions, we have daily proofs. With how VOL. I. ९.

much

much indifference, at least with how flight and tranfient emotion, do we read in news-papers the accounts of the moft deplorable accidents in countries diftant and unknown? How much, on the contrary, are we alarmed and agitated on being informed, that any fuch accident hath happened in our neighbourhood, and that even though we be totally unacquainted with the perfons concerned?

PART VI. Relation to the persons concerned.

STILL greater is the power of relation to the perfons concerned, which was the fixth circumftance mentioned, as this tie is more direct than that which attacheth us to the fcene of action. It is the perfons, not the place, that are the immediate objects of the paffions love or hatred, pity or anger, envy or contempt. Relation to the actors commonly produces an effect contrary to that produced by relation to the sufferers, the first in extenuation, the fecond in aggravation of the crime alleged. The firft makes for the apologift, the fecond for the accufer. This, I fay, is commonly the cafe, not always. A remote relation to the actors, when the offence is heinous, efpecially if the fufferers be more nearly related, will fometimes rather aggravate than extenuate

the

the guilt in our eftimation. But it is impoffible with any precifion to reduce these effects to rules; fo much depending on the different tempers and fentiments of different audiences. Perfonal relations are of various kinds. Some have generally greater influence than others; fome again have greater influence with one perfon, others with another. They are confanguinity, affinity, friendhip, acquaintance, being fellow-citizens, countrymen, of the fame furname, language, religion, occupation, and innumerable others.

PART VII. Intereft in the confequences.

BUT of all the connexive circumftances, the moft powerful is intereft, which is the laft. Of all relations, perfonal relation, by bringing the object very near, moft enlivens that fympathy which attacheth us to the concerns of others; intereft in the effects brings the object, if I may fay fo, into contact with us, and makes the mind cling to it, as a concern of its own. Sympathy is but a reflected feeling, and therefore, in ordinary cafes, muft be weaker than the original. Though the mirror be ever so true, a lover will not be obliged to it for prefenting him with the figure of his miftrefs, when he hath an opportunity of gazing on her perfon. Nor will the orator place his Q2 chief

[ocr errors]
« EdellinenJatka »