For sympathy must be considered as a sort of substitution, by which we
are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as
he is affected; so that this passion may either partake of the nature of
those which regard self?preservation, and turning upon pain may be a
source of the sublime; or it may turn upon ideas of pleasure; and then
whatever has been said of the social affections, whether they regard
society in general, or only some particular modes of it, may be
applicable here. It is by this principle chiefly that poetry, painting,
and other affecting arts, transfuse their passions from one breast to
another, and are often capable of grafting a delight on wretchedness,
misery, and death itself.


PHILOSOPHY OF TASTE.

So far, then, as taste belongs to the imagination, its principle is the
same in all men; there is no different in the manner of their being
affected, nor in the causes of the affection; but in the DEGREE there is
a difference, which arises from two causes principally; either from a
greater degree of natural sensibility, or from a closer and longer
attention to the object.


CLEARNESS AND STRENGTH IN STYLE.

We do not sufficiently distinguish, in our observations upon language,
between a clear expression and a strong expression. These are frequently
confounded with each other, though they are in reality extremely
different. The former regards the understanding; the latter belongs to