Chapter XV: Section V: Joy and Grief

It must be observed, that the cessation of pleasure affects the mind three ways. If it simply ceases after having continued a proper time, the effect is _indifference_; if it be abruptly broken off, there ensues an uneasy sense called _disappointment_; if the object be so totally lost that there is no chance of enjoying it again, a passion arises in the mind which is called _grief_. Now there is none of these, not even grief, which is the most violent, that I think has any resemblance to positive pain. The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him; he indulges it, he loves it: but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time. That grief should be willingly endured, though far from a simply pleasing sensation, is not so difficult to be understood. It is the nature of grief to keep its object perpetually in its eye, to present it in its most pleasurable views, to repeat all the circumstances that attend it, even to the last minuteness; to go back to every particular enjoyment, to dwell upon each, and to find a thousand new perfections in all, that were not sufficiently understood before; in grief, the _pleasure_ is still uppermost; and the affliction we suffer has no resemblance to absolute pain, which is always odious, and which we endeavor to shake off as soon as possible. The Odyssey of Homer, which abounds with so many natural and affecting images, has none more striking than those which Menelaus raises of the calamitous fate of his friends, and his own manner of feeling it. He owns, indeed, that he often gives himself some intermission from such melancholy reflections; but he observes, too, that, melancholy as they are, they give him pleasure.

[Greek:
All empes pantas men odyromenos kai acheuon,
Pollakis en megaroisi kathemenos hemeteroisin,
Allote men te goo phrena terpomai, allote d' aute
Pauomai; aipseros de koros kryeroio gooio]

Hom. Od. [Greek: D]. 100

"Still in short intervals of _pleasing woe_,
Regardful of the friendly dues I owe,
I to the glorious dead, forever dear,
_Indulge_ the tribute of a _grateful_ tear."

On the other hand, when we recover our health, when we escape an imminent danger, is it with joy that we are affected? The sense on these occasions is far from that smooth and voluptuous satisfaction which the assured prospect of pleasure bestows. The delight which arises from the modifications of pain confesses the stock from whence it sprung, in its solid, strong, and severe nature.

SECTION VI.

OF THE PASSIONS WHICH BELONG TO SELF-PRESERVATION.

Most of the ideas which are capable of making a powerful impression on the mind, whether simply of pain or pleasure, or of the modifications of those, may be reduced very nearly to these two heads, _self-preservation_, and _society_; to the ends of one or the other of which all our passions are calculated to answer. The passions which concern self-preservation, turn mostly on _pain_ or _danger_. The ideas of _pain_, _sickness_, and _death_, fill the mind with strong emotions of horror; but _life_ and _health_, though they put us in a capacity of being affected with pleasure, make no such impression by the simple enjoyment. The passions therefore which are conversant about the preservation of the individual turn chiefly on _pain_ and _danger_, and they are the most powerful of all the passions.