Elements of Criticism, Volume I.Kames, Henry Home, Lord
Philosophy
Elements of Criticism, Volume I.
Kames, Henry Home, Lord
Criticism; Literary style
The emotions produced as above may properly be termed _secondary_, being
occasioned either by antecedent emotions or antecedent passions, which
in this respect may be termed _primary_. And to complete the present
theory, I must now remark a difference betwixt a primary emotion and a
primary passion in the production of secondary emotions. A secondary
emotion cannot but be more faint than the primary; and therefore, if the
chief or principal object have not the power to raise a passion, the
accessory object will have still less power. But if a passion be raised
by the principal object, the secondary emotion may readily swell into a
passion for the accessory, provided the accessory be a proper object for
desire. And thus it happens that one passion is often productive of
another. Examples are without number: the sole difficulty is a proper
choice. I begin with self-love, and the power it hath to generate other
passions. The love which parents bear their children, is an illustrious
example of the foregoing doctrine. Every man, beside making part of a
greater system, like a comet, a planet, or satellite only; hath a less
system of his own, in the centre of which he represents the sun
dispersing his fire and heat all around. The connection between a man
and his children, fundamentally that of cause and effect, becomes, by
the addition of other circumstances, the completest that can be among
individuals; and therefore, self-love, the most vigorous of all
passions, is readily expanded upon children. The secondary emotion they
at first produce by means of their connection, is, generally speaking,
sufficiently strong to move desire even from the beginning; and the new
passion swells by degrees, till it rival in some measure self-love, the
primary passion. The following case will demonstrate the truth of this
theory. Remorse for betraying a friend, or murdering an enemy in cold
blood, makes a man even hate himself. In this state, it is a matter of
experience, that he is scarce conscious of any affection to his
children, but rather of disgust or ill-will. What cause can be assigned
for this change, other than the hatred which beginning at himself, is
expanded upon his children? And if so, may we not with equal reason
derive from self-love the affection a man for ordinary has to them?
The affection a man bears to his blood-relations, depends on the same
principle. Self-love is also expanded upon them; and the communicated
passion, is more or less vigorous in proportion to the connection. Nor
doth self-love rest here: it is, by the force of connection,
communicated even to things inanimate. And hence the affection a man
bears to his property, and to every thing he calls his own.
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