8 H I S T O II Y OF ASTRONOMY.

forrow comes down upon the heart that is expan-ded and elated with gaiety and joy, it teems notonly to damp and oppress it, but almoft to crulhand bruise it, as a real weight would crulh andbruise the body. On the contrary, when froman unexpected change offortune, a tide of gladnessseems, if 1 may say so, to fpring up all at oncewithin it, when depressed and contracted withgrief and sorrow, it feels as if suddenly extendedand heaved up with violent and irrefiltible force,and is torn with pangs of all others moss exqui-hte, and which almoft always occasion huntings,deliriums, and sometimes in liant death. For itmay be worth while to observe, that though griefbe a more violent passion than joy, as iqdeed alluneasy sensations seem naturally more pungentthan the opposite agreeable ones, yet of the two,Surprifes of joy are full more insupportable thanSurprifes of grief. We are told that after the bat-tle of Thrafimenus", while a Roman lady, whohad been informed that her son was slain in theaftion, was fitting alone bemoaning her misfor-fortunes, the young man who escaped came sud-denly into the room to her, and that she cried outand expired inftantly in a transport of joy. Letus suppose the contrary of this to have happened?and that in the midit of domeftic feftivity andmirth , he had suddenly fallen down dead at herfeet, is it likely that the effects would have beenequally violent? I imagine not. The heart springsto joy with a fort of natural elafticity, it abandonsitself to fo agreeable an emotion, as soon as the