Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Select Bibliography
- Note on the Texts
- The Rash Resolve: or, the Untimely Discovery
- Life’s Progress through the Passions: or, The Adventures of Natura
- LIFE'S PROGRESS THROUGH THE PASSIONS: INTRODUCTION
- Book the First
- BOOK the Second
- BOOK the Third
- CHAP. I Shews in what manner anger and revenge operate on the mind, and how ambition is capable of stifling both, in a remarkable instance, that private injuries, how great soever, may seem of no weight, when public grandeur requires they should be looked over
- CHAP. II Shews at what age men are most liable to the passion of grief: the impatience of human nature under affliction, and the necessity there is of exerting reason, to restrain the excesses it would otherwise occasion
- CHAP. III The struggles which different passions occasion in the human breast, are here exemplified, and that there is no one among them so strong, but may be extirpated by another, excepting revenge, which knows no period, but by gratification
- CHAP. IV Contains a further definition of revenge, its force, effects, and the chasm it leaves on the mind when once it ceases The tranquility of being entirely devoid of all passions; and the impossibility for the soul to remain in that state of inactivity is also shewn; with some remarks on human nature in general, when left to itself
- CHAP. V Contains a remarkable proof, that tho' the passions may operate with greater velocity and vehemence in youth, yet they are infi nitely more strong and permanent, when the person is arrived at maturity, and are then scarce ever eradicated. Love and friendship are then, and not till then, truly worthy of the names they bear; and that the one between those of diff erent sexes, is always the consequence of the other
- CHAP. VI How the most powerful emotions of the mind subside, and grow weaker in proportion as the strength of the body decays, is here exemplified; and that such passions as remain after a certain age, are not properly the incentives of nature but of example, long habitude, or ill humour
- Editorial Notes
- Silent Corrections
CHAP. II - Shews at what age men are most liable to the passion of grief: the impatience of human nature under affliction, and the necessity there is of exerting reason, to restrain the excesses it would otherwise occasion
from BOOK the Third
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Select Bibliography
- Note on the Texts
- The Rash Resolve: or, the Untimely Discovery
- Life’s Progress through the Passions: or, The Adventures of Natura
- LIFE'S PROGRESS THROUGH THE PASSIONS: INTRODUCTION
- Book the First
- BOOK the Second
- BOOK the Third
- CHAP. I Shews in what manner anger and revenge operate on the mind, and how ambition is capable of stifling both, in a remarkable instance, that private injuries, how great soever, may seem of no weight, when public grandeur requires they should be looked over
- CHAP. II Shews at what age men are most liable to the passion of grief: the impatience of human nature under affliction, and the necessity there is of exerting reason, to restrain the excesses it would otherwise occasion
- CHAP. III The struggles which different passions occasion in the human breast, are here exemplified, and that there is no one among them so strong, but may be extirpated by another, excepting revenge, which knows no period, but by gratification
- CHAP. IV Contains a further definition of revenge, its force, effects, and the chasm it leaves on the mind when once it ceases The tranquility of being entirely devoid of all passions; and the impossibility for the soul to remain in that state of inactivity is also shewn; with some remarks on human nature in general, when left to itself
- CHAP. V Contains a remarkable proof, that tho' the passions may operate with greater velocity and vehemence in youth, yet they are infi nitely more strong and permanent, when the person is arrived at maturity, and are then scarce ever eradicated. Love and friendship are then, and not till then, truly worthy of the names they bear; and that the one between those of diff erent sexes, is always the consequence of the other
- CHAP. VI How the most powerful emotions of the mind subside, and grow weaker in proportion as the strength of the body decays, is here exemplified; and that such passions as remain after a certain age, are not properly the incentives of nature but of example, long habitude, or ill humour
- Editorial Notes
- Silent Corrections
Summary
THERE are certain periods of time, in which the passions take the deepest root within us; what at one age makes but a slight impression, and is easily dissipated by diff erent ideas, at another engrosses all the faculties, and becomes so much a part of the soul, as to require the utmost exertion of reason, and all the aids of philosophy and religion to eradicate. – Grief, for example, is one of those passions which, in extreme youth, we know little of, and even when we grow nearer to maturity, has rarely any great dominion, let the cause which excites it be never so interesting, or justifiable: it may indeed be poignant for a time, and drive us to all the excesses imputed to that passion; but then it is of short continuance, it dwells not on the mind, and the least appearance of a new object of satisfaction, banishes it entirely; we dry our tears, and remember no more what so lately we lamented, perhaps with the most noisy exclamations: – but it is not so when riper years give a solidity and firmness to the judgment; – then as we are less apt to grieve without a cause, so we are less able to refrain from grieving, when we have a real cause. – Grief may therefore be called a reasonable passion, tho' it becomes not a reasonable man to give way to it; – this, at first sight, may seem a paradox to many people, but may easily be solved, in my opinion, on a very little consideration; – as thus, – because to be sensible of our loss in the value of the thing for which we mourn, is a proof of our judgment, as to refrain that mourning for what is past retrieving, within the bounds of moderation, is the greatest proof we can give of our reason: – a dull insensibility is not a testimony, either of wisdom or virtue; we are not to bear afflictions like statues, but like men; that is, we are allowed to feel, but not to repine, or be impatient under them: – few there are, however, who have the power of preserving this happy medium, as I before observed, tho’ they are such as have the assistance both of precept and experience.
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- The Rash Resolve and Life's Progressby Eliza Haywood, pp. 171 - 174Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014