a continuance of the fame melancholy, and is byno means apt to ocean on fuch transports of griefas are ordinarily excited by the firft calamity ofthe kind; he receives it, though with great dejec-tion , yet with forne degree of calm nefs and com-posure , and without any thing of that anguishand agitation of mind which the novelty of themisfortune is apt to occafion. Thofe who havebeen unfortunate through the whole course oftheir lives are often indeed habitually melancholy,and sometimes peevifh and splenetic, yet uponany frefh disappointment, though they are vexedand complain a little, they seldom fly out intoany more violent paflion, and never fall into thofetransports of rage or grief which often, uponthe like occasions, diftrad the fortunate and fuc-cefsiul.
Upon this are founded, in a great measure,some of the effeds of habit and custom. It is wellknown that custom deadens the vivacity of bothpain and pleasure, abates the grief we fl ouid feelfor the one, and weakens the joy we should de-rive from the other. The pain is supported with-out agony, and the pleasure enjoyed withoutrapture : because custom and the frequent repeti-tion of any objed comes at laft to form and bendtije mind or organ to that habitual mood anddisposition which fits them to receive its impres-sion, without undergoing any very violent change.
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