246 On the SUBLIME

agreeable or difagreeable, from which

the others derive their aflbciated powers;
and it would be, I fancy, to little pur-
pofe to look for the caufe of our paflions
in aflbciation, until we fail of it in
the natural properties of things.

SECT. III.

Caufe of P A I N and F E A R.

I Have before obferved, * that whatever

is qualified to caufe terror, is a foun-
dation capable of the fublime; to which
I add, that not only thefe, but many
things from which we cannot probably
apprehend any danger have a fimilar ef-
fedl, becaufe they operate in a fimilar
manner. I obferved too, that <f what-
ever produces pleafure, pofitive and ori-
ginal pleafure, is fit to have beauty en-
grafted on it. Therefore, to clear up the
nature of thefe qualities, it may be ne-
* Part 1. fetf. 8. + Part 1. feft- 10.
ceflary

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 and B E A U T I F U L. 247
ceflary to explain the nature of pain and
pleafure on which they depend, A man
who fuffers under violent bodily pain; (I
fuppofe the moft violent, becaufe the
cffedt may be the more obvious.) I fay
a man in great pain has his teeth fet,
his eye-brows are violently contra&ed,
his forehead is wrinkled, his eyes are
dragged inwards, and rolled with great
vehemence, his hair ftands an end, the
voice is forced out in fhort fhrieks and
groans, and the whole fabric totters.
Fear or terror, which is an apprelien-
fion of pain or death, exhibits exadly
the fame effedls, approaching in violence
to thofe juft mentioned in proportion to
the nearnefs of the caufe, and the weak-
nefs of the fubjeft. This is not only fo
in the human fpecies, but I have more
than once obferved in dogs, under an
apprehenfion of punishment, that they
have writhed their bodies, and yelped,
and howled, as if they had adlually
felt the blows. From hence I conclude
R 4 that

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 248 On the SUBLIME
that pain, and fear, adl upon the fame
parts of the body, and in the fame man-
ner, though fomewhat differing in de-
gree. That pain and fear confift in an
unnatural tenfion of the nerves; that
this is fometimes accompanied with an
unnatural ftrength, which fometimes
fuddenly changes into an extraordinary
weaknefs; that thefe effects often come
on alternately, and are fometimes mixed
with each other. This is the nature of
all convuliive agitations, efpecially in
weaker f.ibje&s, which are the moft
liable to the fevereft impreflions of pain
and fear. The only difference Detween
pain and terror, is, that things which
caufc pain operate on the mind, by the
intervention of the body; whereas things
that caufe terror generally affedt the
bodily organs by the operation of the
mind fuggefting the danger; but both
agreeing, either primarily, or feconda-
rily, in producing a tenfion, contra-
ction, or violent emotion of the
nerves,

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 and B E A U T I F U L. 249
nerves *, they agree likewife in every
thing elfe. For it appears very clearly to
me, from this, as well as from many
other examples, that when the body is
difpofed, by any means whatfoever, to
fuch emotions as it would acquire by
the means of a certain paflion; it will
of itfelf excite fbmething very like that
pafTion in the mind.

SECT. IV.

Continued.

T O this purpofe Mr. Spon, in his

Recherches d'Antiquite, gives us
a curious ftory of the celebrated phy-
fiognomift Campanella; this man, it
feem?, had not only made very accurate

* I do not here enter into the queftion debated

among phyfiologifts, whether pain be the effect of a
contraction, or a tenfion of the nerves. Either will
ferve my purpofc ; for by tenfion, I mean no more
than a violent pulling of the fibres, which compofe
any muicle cr membrane, in whatever way this is
done.
obfer-

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