VIII
Of The Passions Which Belong To Society The other head under which I class our passions,is that of society,which may be divided into two sorts.I.The society of the sexes,which answers the purposes of propagation;and next,that more general society,which we have with men and with other animals,and which we may in some sort be said to have even with the inanimate world.The passions belonging to the preservation of the individual turn wholly on pain and danger:those which belong to generation have their origin in gratifications and pleasures;the pleasure most directly belonging to this purpose is of a lively character,rapturous and violent,and confessedly the highest pleasure of sense;yet the absence of this so great an enjoyment scarce amounts to an uneasiness;and,except at particular times,I do not think it affects at all.When men describe in what manner they are affected by pain and danger,they do not dwell on the pleasure of health and the comfort of security,and then lament the loss of these satisfactions:the whole turns upon the actual pains and horrors which they endure.But if you listen to the complaints of a forsaken lover,you observe that he insists largely on the pleasures which he enjoyed,or hoped to enjoy,and on the perfection of the object of his desires;it is the loss which is always uppermost in his mind.The violent effects produced by love,which has sometimes been even wrought up to madness,is no objection to the rule which we seek to establish.When men have suffered their imaginations to be long affected with any idea,it so wholly engrosses them as to shut out by degrees almost every other,and to break down every partition of the mind which would confine it.Any idea is sufficient for the purpose,as is evident from the infinite variety of causes,which give rise to madness:but this at most can only prove,that the passion of love is capable of producing very extraordinary effects,not that its extraordinary emotions have any connexion with positive pain.
IX
The Final Cause Of The Difference Between The Passions Belonging To Self-Preservation,And Those Which Regard The Society Of The Sexes The final cause of the difference in character between the passions which regard self-preservation,and those which are directed to the multiplication of the species,will illustrate the foregoing remarks yet further;and it is,I imagine,worthy of observation even upon its own account.As the performance of our duties of every kind depends upon life,and the performing them with vigour and efficacy depends upon health,we are very strongly affected with whatever threatens the destruction of either:but as we are not made to acquiesce in life and health,the simple enjoyment of them is not attended with any real pleasure,lest,satisfied with that,we should give ourselves over to indolence and inaction.On the other hand,the generation of mankind is a great purpose,and it is requisite that men should be animated to the pursuit of it by some great incentive.It is therefore attended with a very high pleasure;but as it is by no means designed to be our constant business,it is not fit that the absence of this pleasure should be attended with any considerable pain.
The difference between men and brutes,in this point,seems to be remarkable.Men are at all times pretty equally disposed to the pleasures of love,because they are to be guided by reason in the time and manner of indulging them.Had any great pain arisen from the want of this satisfaction,reason,I am afraid,would find great difficulties in the performance of its office.But brutes,who obey laws,in the execution of which their own reason has but little share,have their stated seasons;at such times it is not improbable that the sensation from the want is very troublesome,because the end must be then answered,or be missed in many,perhaps for ever;as the inclination returns only with its season.
X
Of Beauty The passion which belongs to generation,merely as such,is lust only.
This is evident in brutes,whose passions are more unmixed,and which pursue their purposes more directly than ours.The only distinction they observe with regard to their mates,is that of sex.It is true,that they stick severally to their own species in preference to all others.But this preference,I imagine,does not arise from any sense of beauty which they find in their species,as Mr.
Addison supposes,but from a law of some other kind,to which they are subject;and this we may fairly conclude,from their apparent want of choice amongst those objects to which the barriers of their species have confined them.But man,who is a creature adapted to a greater variety and intricacy of relation,connects with the general passion the idea of some social qualities,which direct and heighten the appetite which he has in common with all other animals;and as he is not designed like them to live at large,it is fit that he should have something to create a preference,and fix his choice;and this in general should be some sensible quality;as no other can so quickly,so powerfully,or so surely produce its effect.The object therefore of this mixed passion,which we call love,is the beauty of the sex.Men are carried to the sex in general,as it is the sex,and by the common law of nature;but they are attached to particulars by personal beauty.I call beauty a social quality;for where women and men,and not only they,but when other animals give us a sense of joy and pleasure in beholding them,(and there are many that do so,)they inspire us with sentiments of tenderness and affection towards their persons;we like to have them near us,and we enter willingly into a kind of relation with them,unless we should have strong reasons to the contrary.
