DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48954#0373
Ch. N1 DIGNITY AND GRACE. 357
siderable degree of dignity. The same is the
case of friendship. When gratitude is warm, it
animates the mind ; but it scarce rises to dignity.
Joy bestows dignity when it proceeds from an ele-
vated cause.
If I can depend upon induftion, dignity is not a
property of any disagreeable passron : one is ssight,
another severe ; one depresses the mind, another
animates it; but there is no elevation , sar less dig-
nity, in any of them. Revenge, in particular,
though it enssame andswell the mind, is not accom-
panied with dignity, not even with elevation : it is
not however felt as mean or groveling, unless
when it takes indireft measurcs for gratisication.
Shame andremorse, though they sink the spirits, are
not mean. Pride, a disagreeable passion, bestows
no dignity in the eye of a speftator. Vanity al-
ways appears mean ; and extremely so where
founded, as commonly happens, on trivial qualifi-
cations.
I proceed to the pleasures of the underssanding,
which possess a high rank in point of dignity. Of
this every one will be sensible , when he considers
the important truths that have been laid open by
science ; such as general theorems, and the gene-
ral laws that govern the material and moral worlds.
The pleasures os the underssanding are suited to
man as a rational and contemplative being; and
they tend not a little to ennoble his nature ; even
to the Deity he stretcheth his contemplations ,
Z 3
siderable degree of dignity. The same is the
case of friendship. When gratitude is warm, it
animates the mind ; but it scarce rises to dignity.
Joy bestows dignity when it proceeds from an ele-
vated cause.
If I can depend upon induftion, dignity is not a
property of any disagreeable passron : one is ssight,
another severe ; one depresses the mind, another
animates it; but there is no elevation , sar less dig-
nity, in any of them. Revenge, in particular,
though it enssame andswell the mind, is not accom-
panied with dignity, not even with elevation : it is
not however felt as mean or groveling, unless
when it takes indireft measurcs for gratisication.
Shame andremorse, though they sink the spirits, are
not mean. Pride, a disagreeable passion, bestows
no dignity in the eye of a speftator. Vanity al-
ways appears mean ; and extremely so where
founded, as commonly happens, on trivial qualifi-
cations.
I proceed to the pleasures of the underssanding,
which possess a high rank in point of dignity. Of
this every one will be sensible , when he considers
the important truths that have been laid open by
science ; such as general theorems, and the gene-
ral laws that govern the material and moral worlds.
The pleasures os the underssanding are suited to
man as a rational and contemplative being; and
they tend not a little to ennoble his nature ; even
to the Deity he stretcheth his contemplations ,
Z 3