n
pain and danger: those which belong to _generation_ have their origin in
gratifications and _pleasures_; the pleasure most directly belonging to
this purpose is of a lively character, rapturous and violent, and
confessedly the highest pleasure of sense; yet the absence of this so
great an enjoyment scarce amounts to an uneasiness; and, except at
particular times, I do not think it affects at all. When men describe in
what manner they are affected by pain and danger, they do not dwell on
the pleasure of health and the comfort of security, and then lament the
_loss_ of these satisfactions: the whole turns upon the actual pains and
horrors which they endure. But if you listen to the complaints of a
forsaken lover, you observe that he insists largely on the pleasures
which he enjoyed, or hoped to enjoy, and on the perfection of the object
of his desires; it is the _loss_ which is always uppermost in his mind.
The violent effects produced by love, which has sometimes been even
wrought up to madness, is no objection to the rule which we seek to
establish. When men have suffered their imaginations to be long affected
with any idea, it so wholly engrosses them as to shut out by degrees
almost every other, and to break down every partition of the mind which
would confine it. Any idea is sufficient for the purpose, as is evident
from the infinite variety of causes, which give rise to madness: but
this at most can only prove, that the passion of love is capable of
producing very extraordinary effects, not that its extraordinary
emotions have any connection with positive pain.

SECTION IX.

THE FINAL CAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PASSIONS BELONGING TO
SELF-PRESERVATION AND THOSE WHICH REGARD THE SOCIETY OF THE SEXES.

The final cause of the difference in character between the passions
which regard self-preservation, and those which are directed to the
multiplication of the species, will illustrate the foregoing remarks yet
further; and it is, I imagine, worthy of observation even upon its own
account. As the performance of our duties of every kind depends upon
life, and the performing them with vigor and efficacy depends upon
health, we are very strongly affected with whatever threatens the
destruction of either: but as we were not made to acquiesce in life and
health, the simple enjoyment of them is not attended with any real
pleasure, lest, satisfied with that, we should give ourselves over to
indolence and inaction.