PLEASURE ARGUMENT. LEASURE in observing the tempers and manners of men, even where vicious or absurd. The origin of vice, from false representations of the fancy, producing false opinions concerning good and evil. Inquiry into ridicule. The general sources of ridicule, in the minds and characters of men, enumerated. Final cause of the sense of ridicule. The resemblance of inanimate things to the sensations and properties of the mind. The operations of the mind in the productions of the works of imagination, described. The secondary pleasure from imitation. The benevolent order of the world illustrated in the arbitrary connection of these pleasures with the objects which excite them. The nature and conduct of taste. Concluding with an account of the natural and moral advantages resulting from a sensible and well informed imagination. BOOK III. W HAT wonder therefore, since the endearing ties Of passion link the universal kind Of man so close, what wonder if to search This common nature through the various change Of each peculiar draw the busy mind With unresisted charms? The spacious west, 5 10 As man to man. Nor only where the smiles Of love invite; nor only where the applause On virtue's graceful deeds. For since the course Of things external acts in different ways 15 On human apprehensions, as the hand Of nature temper'd to a different frame Peculiar minds; so haply where the powers Their genuine hues, the features which they wore 20 And action right. For action treads the path In which opinion says he follows good, 23 30 Is there a man, who at the sound of death, Sees ghastly shapes of terror conjured up, And black before him; nought but death-bed groans, And fearful prayers, and plunging from the brink Of light and being, down the gloomy air, 35 And unknown depth? Alas! in such a mind, If no bright forms of excellence attend 40 Than to betray his country? And in act Will not he chuse to be a wretch and live? 45 Here vice begins then. From the enchanting cup Which fancy holds to all, the unwary thirst Of youth oft swallows a Circæan draught, That sheds a baleful tincture o'er the eye And all is uproar. Thus ambition grasps Of reason, till no longer he discerns, Then revel forth A furious band that spure him from the throne; The empire of the soul; thus pale revenge Unsheath's her murd'rous dagger; and the hands Watch to o'erturn the barrier of the laws The wicked bear, or o'er the trembling scene That keeps them from their prey; thus all the plagues The tragic muse discloses, under shapes 50 60 65 A thousand garbs she wares; a thousand ways See in what crowds the uncouth forms advance; Behold the foremost band; of slender thought, 75 80 85 99 .95 And rags of mouldy volumes. Some elate With martial splendour, steely pikes and swords There stands a female form; to her, with looks 100 105 110 |