| Now to give a reason, why this effect follows not in the same degree upon the second marriage of a father: we may reflect on what has been proved already, that though the imagination goes easily from the view of a lesser object to that of a greater, yet it returns not with the same facility from the greater to the less. |
| When my imagination goes from myself to my father, it passes not so readily from him to his second wife, nor considers him as entering into a different family, but as continuing the head of that family, of which I am myself a part. |
| His superiority prevents the easy transition of the thought from him to his spouse, but keeps the passage still open for a return to myself along the same relation of child and parent. |
| He is not sunk in the new relation he acquires; so that the double motion or vibration of thought is still easy and natural. |
| By this indulgence of the fancy in its inconstancy, the tie of child and parent still preserves its full force and influence. |
| A mother thinks not her tie to a son weakened, because it is shared with her husband: Nor a son his with a parent, because it is shared with a brother. |
| The third object is here related to the first, as well as to the second; so that the imagination goes and comes along all of them with the greatest facility. |
| SECT. V OF OUR ESTEEM FOR THE RICH AND POWERFUL |
| Nothing has a greater tendency to give us an esteem for any person, than his power and riches; or a contempt, than his poverty and meanness: And as esteem and contempt are to be considered as species of love and hatred, it will be proper in this place to explain these phaenomena. |
| Here it happens most fortunately, that the greatest difficulty is not to discover a principle capable of producing such an effect, but to choose the chief and predominant among several, that present themselves. |
| The satisfaction we take in the riches of others, and the esteem we have for the possessors may be ascribed to three different causes. |
| FIRST, To the objects they possess; such as houses, gardens, equipages; which, being agreeable in themselves, necessarily produce a sentiment of pleasure in every one; that either considers or surveys them. |
| SECONDLY, To the expectation of advantage from the rich and powerful by our sharing their possessions. |
| THIRDLY, To sympathy, which makes us partake of the satisfaction of every one, that approaches us. |
| All these principles may concur in producing the present phaenomenon. |
| The question is, to which of them we ought principally to ascribe it, |
| It is certain, that the first principle, viz, the reflection on agreeable objects, has a greater influence, than what, at first sight, we may be apt to imagine. |
| We seldom reflect on what is beautiful or ugly, agreeable or disagreeable, without an emotion of pleasure or uneasiness; and though these sensations appear not much in our common indolent way of thinking, it is easy, either in reading or conversation, to discover them. |
| Men of wit always turn the discourse on subjects that are entertaining to the imagination; and poets never present any objects but such as are of the same nature. |
| Mr Philips has chosen CYDER for the subject of an excellent poem. |
| Beer would not have been so proper, as being neither so agreeable to the taste nor eye. |