, and branch out into a variety of forms, agreeably to that variety
of ends they are to serve in the great chain of society. The three
principal links in this chain are _sympathy_, _imitation,_ and
_ambition_.

SECTION XIII.

SYMPATHY.

It is by the first of these passions that we enter into the concerns of
others; that we are moved as they are moved, and are never suffered to
be indifferent spectators of almost anything which men can do or suffer.
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. It is a common observation, that objects which
in the reality would shock, are in tragical, and such like
representations, the source of a very high species of pleasure. This,
taken as a fact, has been the cause of much reasoning. The satisfaction
has been commonly attributed, first, to the comfort we receive in
considering that so melancholy a story is no more than a fiction; and,
next, to the contemplation of our own freedom from the evils which we
see represented. I am afraid it is a practice much too common in
inquiries of this nature, to attribute the cause of feelings which
merely arise from the mechanical structure of our bodies, or from the
natural frame and constitution of our minds, to certain conclusions of
the reasoning faculty on the objects presented to us; for I should
imagine, that the influence of reason in producing our passions is
nothing near so extensive as it is commonly believed.

SECTION XIV.

THE EFFECTS OF SYMPATHY IN THE DISTRESSES OF OTHERS.

To examine this point concerning the effect of tragedy in a proper
manner, we must previously consider how we are affected by the feelings
of our fellow creatures in circumstances of real distress. I am
convinced we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the
real misfortun