From my own Apartment,October 17.
After the mind has been employed on contemplations suitable to its greatness,it is unnatural to run into sudden mirth or levity;but we must let the soul subside,as it rose,by proper degrees.My late considerations of the ancient heroes impressed a certain gravity upon my mind,which is much above the little gratification received from starts of humour and fancy,and threw me into a pleasing sadness.In this state of thought I have been looking at the fire,and in a pensive manner reflecting upon the great misfortunes and calamities incident to human life,among which there are none that touch so sensibly as those which befall persons who eminently love,and meet with fatal interruptions of their happiness when they least expect it.The piety of children to parents,and the affection of parents to their children,are the effects of instinct;but the affection between lovers and friends is founded on reason and choice,which has always made me think the sorrows of the latter much more to be pitied than those of the former.The contemplation of distresses of this sort softens the mind of man,and makes the heart better.It extinguishes the seeds of envy and ill-will towards mankind,corrects the pride of prosperity,and beats down all that fierceness and insolence which are apt to get into the minds of the daring and fortunate.
For this reason the wise Athenians,in their theatrical performances,laid before the eyes of the people the greatest afflictions which could befall human life,and insensibly polished their tempers by such representations.Among the moderns,indeed,there has arisen a chimerical method of disposing the fortune of the persons represented,according to what they call poetical justice;and letting none be unhappy but those who deserve it.In such cases,an intelligent spectator,if he is concerned,knows he ought not to be so,and can learn nothing from such a tenderness,but that he is a weak creature,whose passions cannot follow the dictates of his understanding.It is very natural,when one is got into such a way of thinking,to recollect these examples of sorrow which have made the strongest impression upon our imaginations.An instance or two of such you will give me leave to communicate.
A young gentleman and lady of ancient and honourable houses in Cornwall had from their childhood entertained for each other a generous and noble passion,which had been long opposed by their friends,by reason of the inequality of their fortunes;but their constancy to each other,and obedience to those on whom they depended,wrought so much upon their relations,that these celebrated lovers were at length joined in marriage.Soon after their nuptials the bridegroom was obliged to go into a foreign country,to take care of a considerable fortune,which was left him by a relation,and came very opportunely to improve their moderate circumstances.They received the congratulations of all the country on this occasion;and I remember it was a common sentence in everyone's mouth,"You see how faithful love is rewarded."He took this agreeable voyage,and sent home every post fresh accounts of his success in his affairs abroad;but at last,though he designed to return with the next ship,he lamented in his letters that "business would detain him some time longer from home,"because he would give himself the pleasure of an unexpected arrival.