to the apparent importance of their cause; according to certain peculiarities of temperament; and also according to the manner in which the influential qualities are presented to the mind.

One or other of the three terms, PASSION, EMOTION, AFFECTION, is always employed to express the sensible effects which objects, or ideas concerning them, have upon the mind; but they are so frequently employed in a vague and indeterminate manner, that some difficulty attends the attempt to restore them to their precise and discriminating significations.

The word Passion, is thus rendered subject to several peculiarities, in the application of it. Sometimes it is used in a generic sense, as expressive of every impression made upon the mind. When we speak of the passions in general, or of a treatise on the passions, we mean not to express the stronger impressions alone, the mildest affections are also included; and if we denominate any one to be a person of strong passions, we mean that he is subject to violent transports of joy, or grief, or anger, &c. indiscriminately. In one instance the word is emphatically employed to express suffering; as our Saviour's passion: in another it indicates anger exclusively; thus when it is said of any one that he is in a passion, it is universally understood that

he is very angry. The term passion, and its adverb passionately, often express a very strong predilection for any pursuit, or object of taste; a kind of enthusiastic fondness for any thing. Thus we remark that a person has a passion for musick, or that he is passionately fond of painting, &c. &c. In a sense similar to this, is the word also applied to every propensity, which operates strongly and permanently upon the mind; as the selfish passions, the generous passions. Yet when we mean to particularize any of these, a different law of phraseology is observed. The word passion is appropriated by the ecil propensities which are uniformly operative. Thus we do not say the affection of pride, or of avarice, but the passion. The term affection, on the other hand, is appropriated by the virtuous propensities; as the social, friendly, parental, filial, affections, &c. though philosophically considered, the relation they bear to the state and workings of the mind, is perfectly analogous.

Nor is this capricious latitude of expression confined to common language, where accuracy is not always to be expected; it is also obvious among philosophers themselves, so that scarcely two authors, who have written upon the subject of the passions, are agreed in their ideas of the terms they employ. While some consider the

Emotions as highly turbulent, others assert that they are in their own nature quiescent :*-Some suppose a Passion to constitute the strength of an emotion; others confine the idea of a passion to the desire which follows an emotion:--Others again represent the Passions as the calmest things in nature, deeming them to be the steady uniform principles of action, to which reason itself is always subservient. Hence it becomes highly necessary to seek after some rules, which may render our ideas more consistent and uniform.

In most of these applications, no attention has been paid to the primitive signification of the word Passion; although this appears to be the safest method to recall us from those aberrations to which we are perpetually exposed. Few expressions wander so far from their original import, as to convey a sense which is totally foreign. The primary idea annexed to the word is that of passiveness, or being impulsively acted upon. In this sense the term properly signifies the sensible effect, the feeling to which the mind is become subjected, when an object of importance, suddenly and imperiously, demands its attention. If our imaginations be lively, our temperaments susceptible, the object interesting to us, we cannot avoid being affected, or suffer

* Lord Kaims.

+ Mr. Hume.

ing some powerful change in our dispositions, by its recent appearance, or by the suggestion of a something we deem of importance. In all such cases we are obviously passive; we are acted upon without any previous determination of the will, or without any consent of our own.

As several of our passions are of a disagreeable and painful nature, and as this passive or helpless state is so frequently connected with suffering, the transition from one signification to the other, is not only natural but almost inevitable; and Passion will often be considered as synonymous with Suffering. In medical language, a person 'oppressed with disease is called a Patient, an involuntary sufferer, and the calmness with which he submits is termed patience; that is, the mind yields with tranquillity to the pains and indispositions of the body. The word Pathology, has also the same derivation: it is the history of the sufferings incident to the human frame. The Greeks expressed passions in general by Talos, which signifies suffering; and the Latin word Passio, from which we have adopted the term passion, has the same signification. The Stoics also gave the name of Tan to all extraordinary emotions of the soul, because they considered them as mental diseases, by which the soul, while under their influence, was reduced to

a state of suffering. But this secondary sense, as far as it conveys the idea of an unpleasant or painful sensation, is alone applicable to the effects produced by passions of a certain class; for others are in their own nature pleasing; as joy and hope: whereas the primitive import of the word, that of passiveness, equally belongs to them all. The mind is equally passive in every effect suddenly and unexpectedly produced upon it, whether its influence be of a pleasant, or unpleasant nature. See Note A.)

The term Passion therefore, may with strict propriety be used, and used exclusively, to represent the first feeling, the percussion as it were, of which the mind is conscious from some impulsive cause; by which it is wholly acted upon, without any efforts of its own, either to solicit or escape the impression.

Probably it is in allusion to this passive state of the mind, that the terms passion and passionately, are employed to express the powerful attachment to particular objects mentioned above. They insinuate that the influence of these beloved objects, is irresistible; and that the mind is completely under their dominion.

The state of absolute passiveness, in consequence of any sudden percussion of mind, is of short duration. The strong impression, or vivid