WRITINGS OF DR. SMITH.

XXVII

' pathize with them. It is unbecoming to cry out

with bodily pain, because the sympathy felt by1 the fpedator bears no proportion to the acuteness

e of what is felt by the fufferer. The cafe is fome-

n what similar with those pallions which take their

it origin from a particular turn or habit of the ima-

r, gination.

-k In the cafe of the unsocial paffions of hatred and

!>! resentment, the sympathy of the spectator is di-ll- . vided between the person who feels the paffion ,

fo and the person who is the objeCt of it. “ We

& “ are concerned for both, and our fear for what

i “ the one may suffer damps our resentment for

il, " what the other has suffered." Hence the i na-if- perfect degree in which we sympathize with such

ini pallions ; and the propriety, when we are under

ri their influence, of moderating their exprefiion to

a much greater degree than is required in the cafe, e of any other emotions.

of The reverse of this takes place with refpect to

th all the focial and benevolent affections. Thefym-

ry pa thy of the spectator with the perlon who feels

on them, coincides with his concern for the person

or who is the objedt of them. It is this redoubled

je- sympathy which renders these affections fo pecu-

of liarly becoming and agreeable.

The felftfii emotions of ^rief and joy, whenffl they are conceived on account of our own private

in* good or bad fortune, hold a fort of middle place