Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/329

 ; lead, or even compel, men to resign all to God; and so advance them to a more pure, disinterested, and permanent love of God, and of their neighbour, than they could have arrived at (all other things remaining the same), had they not undergone these anxieties; and therefore are to be esteemed the kind corrections of an Infinitely Merciful Father.

Section IV
THE PLEASURES AND PAINS OF SYMPATHY.



sympathetic affections may be distinguished into four classes, viz.

First, Those by which we rejoice at the happiness of others.

Secondly, Those by which we grieve for their misery.

Thirdly, Those by which we rejoice at their misery.

And Fourthly, Those by which we grieve for their happiness.

Of the first kind are sociality, good-will, generosity, and gratitude. Of the second, compassion and mercy. Of the third, moroseness, anger, revenge, jealousy, cruelty, and malice. And of the fourth, emulation and envy.

It is easy to be conceived, that associations should produce affections of all these four kinds, since in the intercourses of life the pleasures and pains of one are, in various ways, intermixed with, and dependent upon, those of others, so as to have clusters of their miniatures excited, in all the possible ways in which the happiness or misery of one can be combined with the happiness or misery of another; i.e. in the four above-mentioned. I will now enter upon the detail of the rise and progress of each of them.

The Affections by which we rejoice at the Happiness of others.

The first of these is sociality, or the pleasure we take in the mere company and conversation of others, particularly of our friends and acquaintance, and which is attended with mutual affability, complaisance, and candour. Now most of the pleasures which children receive are conferred upon them by others, their parents, attendants, or play-fellows. And the number of the pleasures which they receive in this way, is far greater than