佚名/Anonymous
There is a certain delicacy of passion to which some people are subj ect that makes them extremely sensible to all the accidents of life,and gives them a lively joy up on every prosperous event,as well as a pierc ing a grief when they meet with crosses and adversity.Favours and good offices easily engage their friendship,while the smallest injury provok es their resentment.Any honour or mark of distinction elevates them abo ve measure;but they are as sensibly touched with contempt.People of th is character have,no doubt,more lively enjoyments,as well as more pun gent sorrows,than men of more cool and sedate tempers.But,I believe,when every thing is balanced,there is no one that would not rather chos e to be of the latter character,were he entirely master of his own disp osition.Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal and when a p erson that has this sensibility of temper meets with any misfortune,his sorrow or resentment takes entire possession of him,and deprives him of all relish in the common occurrences of life,the right enjoyment of whi ch forms the greatest part of our happiness.Great pleasures are much le ss frequent than great pains,so that a sensible temper must meet with f ewer trials in the former way than in the latter.
There is a delicacy of taste observable in some men,which very much resembles this delicacy of passion,and produces the same sensibility to beauty and deformity of every kind,as that does to prosperity and adver sity,obligations and injuries.When you present a poem or a picture to a man possessed of this talent,the delicacy of his feelings or sentimen ts makes him be touched very sensibly by every part of it;nor are the m asterly strokes perceived with a more exquisite relish and satisfaction,than the negligences or absurdities with disgust and uneasiness.A polit e and judicious conversation affords him the highest entertainment.R udeness or impertinence is as great a punishment to him.In short,delic acy of taste has the same effect as delicacy of passion:it enlarges th e sphere both of our happiness and misery,and makes us sensible to pain s as well as pleasures that escape the rest of mankind.