ugly, agreeable or disagreeable, without an emotion of pleasure or
uneasiness; and though these sensations appear not much in our common
indolent way of thinking, it is easy, either in reading or conversation,
to discover them. Men of wit always turn the discourse on subjects that
are entertaining to the imagination; and poets never present any objects
but such as are of the same nature. Mr Philips has chosen CYDER for the
subject of an excellent poem. Beer would not have been so proper, as
being neither so agreeable to the taste nor eye. But he would certainly
have preferred wine to either of them, coued his native country have
afforded him so agreeable a liquor. We may learn from thence, that
every thing, which is agreeable to the senses, is also in some measure
agreeable to the fancy, and conveys to the thought an image of that
satisfaction, which it gives by its real application to the bodily
organs.

But though these reasons may induce us to comprehend this delicacy of
the imagination among the causes of the respect, which we pay the
rich and powerful, there are many other reasons, that may keep us from
regarding it as the sole or principal. For as the ideas of pleasure
can have an influence only by means of their vivacity, which makes them
approach impressions, it is most natural those ideas should have that
influence, which are favoured by most circumstances, and have a natural
tendency to become strong and lively; such as our ideas of the passions
and sensations of any human creature. Every human creature resembles
ourselves, and by that means has an advantage above any other object, in
operating on the imagination.

Besides, if we consider the nature of that faculty, and the great
influence which all relations have upon it, we shall easily be
persuaded, that however the ideas of the pleasant wines, music, or
gardens, which the rich man enjoys, may become lively and agreeable, the
fancy will not confine itself to them, but will carry its view to the
related objects; and in particular, to the person, who possesses them.
And this is the more natural, that the pleasant idea or image produces
here a passion towards the person, by means of his relation to the
object; so that it is unavoidable but he must enter into the original
conception, since he makes the object of the derivative passion: But if
he enters into the original conception, and is considered as enjoying
these agreeable objects, it is sympathy, which i