Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Select Papers On Various Subjects, Read Before A Literary Society In London.
himself , I forget which , that he was never so happy as when delineating the miseries of human life . Dr . Hartley and Dr . Priestley , making an estimate of the happiness and misery in the world , have given it in favour of the former and sensibility . But why have recurrence to such methods to establish the value of this state of mind ? If the passions were bestowed as the means of happiness , then to improve the means will be to increase the end . To ask if sensibility be better
than apatlty , is to ask if knowledge be better than ignorance , or if to possess refined taste ( which seems to me to be only the perfection of knowledge ) be better than tobeivifboutif ; notwithstanding that more knowledge brings us acquainted with more woe , and he that possesses refined taste is perpetually liable to be disgusted at the want of it in others : for-was it ever known that a man possessed 3113 * considerable
share of knowledge or taste which he would be g lad to unlearn ? Then may we reasonably suppose , tliat the good arising from all these overpowers the ill , 'fbv ho man can be in love with pain . It appears , then , that sensibility arising from the . due exercise of the passions is necessary to determine , the-value and extent of the obligation we owe . to the Deity ; and that without it none can enjoy the true relish of life .
AH ! what-art thou whose soft controul Falls on the passions' silver strings , Whence heav ' nly HARMONY- upsprings , And bathes in extasy the human soul ? Xo ! whilst amid the quiv ' ring chords Thy magic fingers wildly roam , Ideas yet unknown to words
Of mingling pains and pleasures come ! Enchanting ' HOPE , cold dewy FKAR , Bright JOY , and MELANCHOLY pale . AVERSION and DESIT . E appear , HATitED ' and LOVE by turns prevail ! These own thy wond ' rous pow'r divine ;
Arise , increase , oppose , combine , And all the mental bliss or woe Which mortals can- endure bestow . Let those who scorn thy polish'd sway Sink to ignoble apathy . Whate ' er thy votary- betide , Be his companion and his guide .
Should FORTUNE smile , thou'lt teach his heart Both to enjoy and to impart ; 13 ut should he , which is likelier far , Breathe of life's lowly vale the air , A spreading tree , a flow ' ry field , Shall greater joy than cities yield ; He'll prize an humblo crust with tlice More than the pomp of LC . XUHY ; And purer joys shall rills afford Than wine high mantling 011 the board .
ODE TO SENSIBILITY
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Select Papers On Various Subjects, Read Before A Literary Society In London.
himself , I forget which , that he was never so happy as when delineating the miseries of human life . Dr . Hartley and Dr . Priestley , making an estimate of the happiness and misery in the world , have given it in favour of the former and sensibility . But why have recurrence to such methods to establish the value of this state of mind ? If the passions were bestowed as the means of happiness , then to improve the means will be to increase the end . To ask if sensibility be better
than apatlty , is to ask if knowledge be better than ignorance , or if to possess refined taste ( which seems to me to be only the perfection of knowledge ) be better than tobeivifboutif ; notwithstanding that more knowledge brings us acquainted with more woe , and he that possesses refined taste is perpetually liable to be disgusted at the want of it in others : for-was it ever known that a man possessed 3113 * considerable
share of knowledge or taste which he would be g lad to unlearn ? Then may we reasonably suppose , tliat the good arising from all these overpowers the ill , 'fbv ho man can be in love with pain . It appears , then , that sensibility arising from the . due exercise of the passions is necessary to determine , the-value and extent of the obligation we owe . to the Deity ; and that without it none can enjoy the true relish of life .
AH ! what-art thou whose soft controul Falls on the passions' silver strings , Whence heav ' nly HARMONY- upsprings , And bathes in extasy the human soul ? Xo ! whilst amid the quiv ' ring chords Thy magic fingers wildly roam , Ideas yet unknown to words
Of mingling pains and pleasures come ! Enchanting ' HOPE , cold dewy FKAR , Bright JOY , and MELANCHOLY pale . AVERSION and DESIT . E appear , HATitED ' and LOVE by turns prevail ! These own thy wond ' rous pow'r divine ;
Arise , increase , oppose , combine , And all the mental bliss or woe Which mortals can- endure bestow . Let those who scorn thy polish'd sway Sink to ignoble apathy . Whate ' er thy votary- betide , Be his companion and his guide .
Should FORTUNE smile , thou'lt teach his heart Both to enjoy and to impart ; 13 ut should he , which is likelier far , Breathe of life's lowly vale the air , A spreading tree , a flow ' ry field , Shall greater joy than cities yield ; He'll prize an humblo crust with tlice More than the pomp of LC . XUHY ; And purer joys shall rills afford Than wine high mantling 011 the board .
ODE TO SENSIBILITY