ble
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
o