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K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? tell me, gentle, friend, How went he under him.

Groom. So proudly as he had disdain'd the ground. K. Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back! That jade had eat bread from my royal hand.

This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
Would he not stumble? would he not fall down,
(Since pride muft have a fall), and break the neck
Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
Richard II. at 5: fc. 11.

Hamlet, fwelled with indignation at his mother's fecond marriage, was ftrongly inclined to leffen the time of her widowhood, the shortness of the time being a violent circumstance against her; and he deludes himself by degrees into the opinion of an interval fhorter than the real one:

Hamlet.

That it fhould come to this! But two months dead! nay, not so much; not two ;— So excellent a king, that was, to this,

Hyperion to a fatyr.: fo loving to my mother,
That he permitted not the winds of heav'n
Vifit her face too roughly. Heav'n and earth!
Muft I remember-why, the would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on; yet, within a month-
Let me not think-Frailty, thy name is Woman!

A little month! or ere these fhoes were old,

With which the follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears-
Why fhe, ev'n fhe

(O heav'n! a beast that wants discourse of reason,

VOL. I.

L

Would

Would have mourn'd longer-) married with mine

uncle,

My father's brother; but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules. Within a month!.
Ere yet the falt of moft unrighteous tears.
Had left the flufhing in her gauled eyes,
She married Oh, moft wicked speed, to poft
With fuch dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good.

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
A& 1. fc. 3.

The power of paffion to falfify the computation of time is remarkable in this inftance; because time, which hath an accurate measure, is lefs obfequious to our defires and wishes, than objects which have no precife ftandard of lefs or

more.

Good news are greedily fwallowed upon very flender evidence our wishes magnify the probability of the event, as well as the veracity of the relater; and we believe as certain, what at beft is doubtful:

Quel, che l'huom vede, amor li fa invifible

E l'invifibil fa veder amore

Quefto creduto fu, che 'l mifer fuole

Dar facile credenza a' quel, che vuole.

Orland. Furiof. cant. 1. ft. 56.

For the fame reafon, bad news gain alfo credit upon the slightest evidence: fear, if once alarm

ed,

*

ed, has the fame effect with hope, to magnify every circumstance that tends to conviction. Shakespear, who fhows more knowledge of human nature than any of our philofophers, hath in his Cymbeline reprefented this bias of the mind; for he makes the person who alone was affected with the bad news, yield to evidence that did not convince any of his companions. And Othello is convinced of his wife's infidelity from circumstances too flight to move any perfon lefs interested.

If the news intereft us in fo low a degree as to give place to reason, the effect will not be altogether the fame: judging of the probability or improbability of the ftory, the mind fettles in a rational conviction either that it is true or not. But, even in that cafe, the mind is not allowed to reft in that degree of conviction which is produced by rational evidence: if the news be in any degree favourable, our belief is raised by hope to an improper height; and if unfavourable, by fear.

This obfervation holds equally with respect to future events: if a future event be either much wifhed or dreaded, the mind never fails to augment the probability beyond truth.

That eafiness of belief with refpect to wonders and prodigies, even the most abfurd and ridiculous, is a ftrange phenomenon; because nothing

A& 2. fc. 6.

† A& 3. fc. 8.

L 2

çan

can be more evident than the following propofition, that the more fingular any event is, the more evidence is required to produce belief: a familiar event daily occurring, being in itself extremely probable, finds ready credit, and therefore is vouched by the flightest evidence; but to overcome the improbability of a strange and rare event, contrary to the course of nature, the very strongest evidence is required. It is certain, however, that wonders and prodigies are swallowed by the vulgar, upon evidence that would not be fufficient to ascertain the most familiar Occurrence. It has been reckoned difficult to explain that irregular bias of mind; but we are now made acquainted with the influence of paffion upon opinion and belief: a story of ghosts or fairies, told with an air of gravity and truth, raiseth an emotion of wonder, and perhaps of dread; and these emotions impofing upon a weak mind, imprefs upon it a thorough conviction contrary to reafon.

Opinion and belief are influenced by propenfity as well as by paflion. An innate propensity is all we have to convince us, that the operations of nature are uniform: influenced by that propenfity, we often rafhly think, that good or bad weather will never have an end; and in natural philofophy, writers, influenced by the fame propenfity, stretch commonly their analogical reafonings beyond just bounds.

Opinion

Opinion and belief are influenced by affection as well as by propenfity. The noted story of a fine lady and a curate viewing the moon through a telescope, is a pleasant illuftration: I perceive, fays the lady, two fhadows inclining to each other; they are certainly two happy lovers: Not at all, replies the curate, they are two steeples of a cathedral.

APPENDIX to Part V.

Methods that Nature hath afforded for computing Time and Space.

"HIS fubject is introduced, because it affords

TH

feveral curious examples of the influence of paffion to bias the mind in its conceptions and opinions; a leffon that cannot be too frequently inculcated, as there is not perhaps another bias in human nature that hath an influence fo univerfal to make us wander from truth as well as from juftice.

I begin with time; and the question is, What was the measure of time before artificial measures were invented; and what is the measure at prefent when these are not at hand? I fpeak not of months and days, which are computed by the moon and fun; but of hours, or in general of the time that paffes between any two occurrences

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