Were it possible that a human creature could grow up to manhood in
some solitary place, without any communication with his own species,
he could no more think of his own character, of the propriety or
demerit of his own sentiments and conduct, of the beauty or deformity
of his own mind, than of the beauty or deformity of his own face. All
these are objects which he cannot easily see, which naturally he does
not look at, and with regard to which he is provided with no mirror
which can present them to his view. Bring him into society, and he is
immediately provided with the mirror which he wanted before. It is
placed in the countenance and behaviour of those he lives with, which
always mark when they enter into, and when they disapprove of his
sentiments; and it is here that he first views the propriety and
impropriety of his own passions, the beauty and deformity of his own
mind. To a man who from his birth was a stranger to society, the
objects of his passions, the external bodies which either pleased or
hurt him, would occupy his whole attention. The passions themselves,
the desires or aversions, the joys or sorrows, which those objects
excited, though of all things the most immediately present to him,
could scarce ever be the objects of his thoughts. The idea of them
could never interest him so much as to call upon his attentive
consideration. The consideration of his joy could in him excite no new
joy, nor that of his sorrow any new sorrow, though the consideration
of the causes of those passions might often excite both. Bring him
into society and all his own passions will immediately become the
causes of new passions. He will observe that mankind approve of some
of them, and are disgusted by others. He will be elevated in the one
case, and cast down in the other; his desires and aversions, his joys
and sorrows, will now often become the causes of new desires and new
aversions, new joys and new sorrows: they will now, therefore,
interest him deeply, and often call upon his most attentive
consideration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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