hings affect us by
association only; since some things must have been originally and
naturally agreeable or disagreeable, from which the others derive their
associated powers; and it would be, I fancy, to little purpose to look
for the cause of our passions in association, until we fail of it in the
natural properties of things.

SECTION III.

CAUSE OF PAIN AND FEAR.

I have before observed,[29] that whatever is qualified to cause terror
is a foundation capable of the sublime; to which I add, that not only
these, but many things from which we cannot probably apprehend any
danger, have a similar effect, because they operate in a similar manner.
I observed, too,[30] that whatever produces pleasure, positive and
original pleasure, is fit to have beauty engrafted on it. Therefore, to
clear up the nature of these qualities, it may be necessary to explain
the nature of pain and pleasure on which they depend. A man who suffers
under violent bodily pain, (I suppose the most violent, because the
effect may be the more obvious,) I say a man in great pain has his teeth
set, his eyebrows are violently contracted, his forehead is wrinkled,
his eyes are dragged inwards, and rolled with great vehemence, his hair
stands on end, the voice is forced out in short shrieks and groans, and
the whole fabric totters. Fear or terror, which is an apprehension of
pain or death, exhibits exactly the same effects, approaching in
violence to those just mentioned, in proportion to the nearness of the
cause, and the weakness of the subject. This is not only so in the human
species: but I have more than once observed in dogs, under an
apprehension of punishment, that they have writhed their bodies, and
yelped, and howled, as if they had actually felt the blows. From hence I
conclude, that pain and fear act upon the same parts of the body, and in
the same manner, though somewhat differing in degree: that pain and fear
consist in an unnatural tension of the nerves; that this is sometimes
accompanied with an unnatural strength, which sometimes suddenly changes
into an extraordinary weakness; that these effects often come on
alternately, and are sometimes mixed with each other. This is the nature
of all convulsive agitations, especially in weaker subjects, which are
the most liable to the severest impressions of pain and fear. The only
difference between pain and terror is, that things which cause pain
operate on the mind by the intervention of the bo