SECT.

I.

SECTION I.

Of the Effect of Unexpectedness, or of

Surprife.

WHEN an object of any kind, which has

been for fome time expected and forefeen, prefents itself, whatever be the emotion which it is by nature fitted to excite, the mind muft have been prepared for it, and muft even in fome meafure have conceived it before-hand; because the idea of the object having been fo long prefent to it, must have before-hand excited fome degree of the fame emotion which the object itfelf would excite: the change, therefore, which its prefence produces comes thus to be lefs confiderable, and the emotion or paffion which it excites glides gradually and eafily into the heart, without violence, pain, or difficulty.

But the contrary of all this happens when the object is unexpected; the paffion is then poured in all at once upon the heart, which is thrown, if it is a ftrong paffion, into the moft violent and convulfive emotions, fuch as fometimes caufe immediate death; fometimes, by the fuddennefs of the extacy, fo entirely disjoint the whole frame of the imagination, that it never after returns to its former tone

I..

and compofure, but falls either into a frenzy s E c T. or habitual lunacy; and fuch as almost always occafion a momentary lofs of reafon, or of that attention to other things which our fituation or our duty requires.

How much we dread the effects of the more violent paffions, when they come fuddenly upon the mind, appears from thofe preparations which all men think neceffary when going to inform any one of what is capable of exciting them. Who would choose all at once to inform his friend of an extraordinary calamity that had befallen him, without taking care before-hand, by alarming him with an uncertain fear, to announce, if one may say fo, his misfortune, and thereby prepare and difpofe him for receiving the tidings?

Those panic terrors which fometimes feize armies in the field, or great cities, when an enemy is in the neighbourhood, and which deprive for a time the most determined of all deliberate judgments, are never excited but by the fudden apprehenfion of unexpected danger. Such violent confternations, which at once confound whole multitudes, benumb their understandings, and agitate their hearts, with all the agony of extravagant fear, can never be produced by any forefeen danger, how great foever. Fear, though naturally a very ftrong paffion, never rifes to fuch exceffes, unless exafperated both by Wonder, from the uncertain

SE C T. uncertain nature of the danger, and by Surprife, from the fuddennefs of the apprehenflon.

I.

Surprife, therefore, is not to be regarded as an original emotion of a fpecies diftinct from all others. The violent and fudden change produced upon the mind, when an emotion of any kind is brought fuddenly upon it, conftitutes the whole nature of Surprise.

But when not only a paffion and a great paflion comes all at once upon the mind, but when it comes upon it while the mind is in the mood moft unfit for conceiving it, the Surprife is then the greatest. Surprises of joy when the mind is funk into grief, or of grief when it is elated with joy, are therefore the most unfupportable. The change is in this cafe the greateft poffible. Not only a ftrong paffion is conceived all at once, but a ftrong paffion the direct oppofite of that which was before in poffeffion of the foul. When a load of forrow comes down upon the heart that is expanded and elated with gaiety and joy, it seems not only to damp and oppress it, but almoft to crush and bruife it, as a real weight would crufh and bruise the body. On the contrary, when from an unexpected change of fortune, a tide of gladness seems, if I may fay fo, to fpring up all at once within it, when depreffed and contracted with grief and forrow, it feels as if fuddenly extended

and

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and heaved up with violent and irresistible S E C T. force, and is torn with pangs of all others moft exquifite, and which almost always occafion faintings, deliriums, and fometimes inftant death. For it may be worth while to observe, that though grief be a more violent paffion than joy, as indeed all uneafy fenfations feem naturally more pungent than the oppofite agreeable ones, yet of the two, Surprises of joy are still more infupportable than Surprises of grief. We are told that after the battle of Thrafimenus, while a Roman lady, who had been informed that her fon was flain in the action, was fitting alone bemoaning her miffortunes, the young man who escaped came fuddenly into the room to her, and that the cried out and expired inftantly in a transport of joy. Let us fuppofe the contrary of this to have happened, and that in the midst of domestic festivity and mirth, he had fuddenly fallen down dead at her feet, is it likely that the effects would have been equally violent? I imagine not. The heart fprings to joy with a fort of natural elafticity, it abandons itself to fo agreeable an emotion, as foon as the object is prefented; it feems to pant and leap forward to meet it, and the paffion in its full force takes at once entire and complete poffeffion of the foul. But it is otherways with grief; the heart recoils from, and refifts

the

I.

torrent.

SECT. the first approaches of that difagreeable paf fion, and it requires fome time before the melancholy object can produce its full effect. Grief comes on flowly and gradually, nor ever rifes at once to that height of agony to which it is increased after a little time. But joy comes rufhing upon us all at once like a The change produced therefore by a Surprise of joy is more fudden, and upon that account more violent and apt to have more fatal effects, than that which is occafioned by a Surprise of grief; there feems too to be fomething in the nature of Surprife, which makes it unite more easily with the brisk and quick motion of joy, than with the flower and heavier movement of grief. Moft men who can take the trouble to recollect, will find that they have heard of more people who died or became diftracted with fudden joy, than with fudden grief. Yet from the nature of human affairs, the latter muft be much more frequent than the former. A man may break his leg, or lofe his fon, though he has had no warning of either of these events, but he can hardly meet with an extraordinary piece of good fortune, without having had fome forefight of what was to happen.

Not only grief and joy but all the other paffions, are more violent, when oppofite extremes fucceed each other. Is any refent

ment