Historical Illustrations of the Origin and Progress of the Passions, and their influence on the conduct of mankind; with some subordinate sketches of human nature and human life

Front matter

ILLUSTRATIONS or THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE PASSIONS. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OP THE PASSIONS, AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CONDUCT OF MANKIND WITH SOME SUBORDINATE SKETCHES sJF HUMAN NATURE AND HUMAN LIFE. BY SAMUEL WALTER BURGESS. IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOLUME FIRST. LONDON: LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1828. TO THE MOST NOBLE THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, F.R.S. F.S.A. Œfjfitt Uolunttfi* ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, (AS A HARK OP BESPECT AND VENERATION) BY HIS GRACE'S OBEDIENT. BUMBLE SERVANT. THE AUTHOR.

Preface

. The influence of the passions being the source of human action, the basis of comfort, or the bane of felicity, whatever may illustrate their origin and progress, their inversion or subsidence, cannot be void of interest to those who find pleasure in con templation. All the primitive mental affections seem gifted for uniform purposes, and as their operation is exercised on a system composed of the same materials, where ever subsisting they are to be distinguished by in tensity alone. A certain association of people, therefore, more or less numerous, and of longer or shorter duration, perhaps, will elucidate the entire history of the human race. Experience is common ly proportioned to the survivance of individuals, and their intermixture with society. The subsequent illustrations are copiously de duced from all authorities, and blended together from the records of every age and nation ; for an cient and modern seras, foreign and domestic his tory, are terms too indefinite to convey an ade quate knowledge of human nature, which never can be reached by the mere reciprocity of words.

PREFACE.

. VI Perhaps the comparative condition of mankind is rateable chiefly by stages of civilization, as their opinions are then founded on axioms of the nearest analogy. Isolated facts afford unquestionable testimony of the transitions and excesses of which the mind, throughout its wonderful progress, is susceptible ; but satisfactory conclusions are best obtained from a wide survey of the world, and a great corroboration of incident. Impartial contemporary observation, always of avowed utility, forms a very meagre por tion of the most familiar written history; and, doubtless, many immense chasms have been sup plied solely by imagination. Judicial proceedings, though not infallible, are to be assumed as prefer able historical evidence ; for falsehood is surely of easier detection where the single purpose of investigation is to elicit truth.

The author having in general presumed on the reader's inexperience, has led to the discussion of certain topics rather to be considered interesting than debateable, and to a greater profusion of il lustrations. Original authorities have been resorted to in so far as practicable, and passages are fre quently presented entire, partly to preserve or restore the purity of citations, partly because the learned may be at variance regarding their precise inter pretation. Esteeming authenticity the first recom mendation, many examples appear though wanting the merit of novelty : some are reluctantly drawn from sources as yet unconfirmed by the test of time ;

PREFACE.

. VII probably others more appropriate have been over looked ; nor is it unlikely that the retrenchment of a few superfluities shall be desired by an erudite and discriminative taste. The largest stores of pri vate information are scanty amidst the mass of universal knowledge — innumerable fallacies and imper fections are betrayed in the most careful composi tions. That the fabulist may polish blemishes, and perfect his narrative, he has only to encourage the flights of fancy, and select the ornaments of lan guage. If the historian would replenish vacuity, and veil his defects, he must often content himself with meaner aid. Admitted fable, in all its mul tifarious shapes, is sedulously rejected here. Several works of reputed excellence have proved unattainable by the author ; but the sentiments of the most illustrious writers are appealed to invariably, as deserving the greatest deference.

If familiar names be not classed along with them, it is from assigning the highest as its rightful place to instructive literature. The history of the human race is too ample to admit of more than the most circumscribed and abrupt discussion of a few prominent incidents with in the narrow compass of these volumes; nor do the various aspects under which the influence of the pas sions, or the motives and conduct of our fellow-creatures may be considered, permit us to insist that no other conclusions than the following are deducible, even from the principles which have been assumed. CONTENTS. VOLUME FIRST. Page. Chapter I. Perishable Condition of Mankind 1 II. Evolution of the Malevolent Affections 11 III. Evolution of the Benevolent Affections 183 IV. On the Original Disposition of Man... 246 V. Is the Desire of Acquisition Congenial to Mankind? 271 VI.

Deceit is Unnatural 316 VII. Ancient Views of Retribution 380 VIII. Disappointment Results from Ignorance of Sublunary Arrangements... 404 IX. Preparation of the Mind for Worldly "" Incidents 452 VOLUME SECOND. Page. Chapter I. Is it lawful to commit Suicide? 1 II. Does great Inequality subsist among Mankind? 148 III. On the profitable Occupation of Time 212 IV. Sketches of suitable Conduct throughout Life gyg V. The Conduct of Mankind in their last Moments 403 ArrENDix 471 Is">EX ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE PASSIONS.

Chapter I. Perishable Condition Of Mankind

JMan by nature is a helpless and perishable being, dependant at the hour of his birth on the fostering care of others : seeking subsistence in maturer age from his strength or contrivance, and sheltering bis unprotected frame from the intemperance of the elements. Though in the full enjoyment of vigorous youth, life is ever precarious : neither the insidious progress of disease, nor the sudden dangers of accident, are postponed for senility and decrepitude. Phe mortal blow is struck without a distant warn ing»- —when least expected — when most irresistible ; VOL.]. b TERISHABLE CONDITION 2 and were it not from counteracting principles, wisely devised for preservation, the human race would soon disappear and be annihilated. No one can seriously contemplate his own delicate structure, without admiring itscomponent parts, or without amazement how the frail tenement has held so long together : An unwary step will dislo cate his joints, — a grain of sand will extinguish sight, — his very soul may escape by a wound which is scarcely perceptible.

Too truly he is composed of perishable materials, which, in their dissolution, shall speedily mingle him with his kindred dust, resolve into air, and vanish.* But this is an arrangement essential for the well being of the universe. If unceasing increase be in consistent with limited space, and the laws of animal organization prohibit its eternity, death is the indis pensable consequence of life, that a place may be left for the new evolutions or creations which are destined to occupy the sublunary world. The necessities of man, in his original state, are restricted to procuring food and obtaining shelter ; nor do his speculations then extend beyond them. But that clime is rarely allotted where, amidst never-fading verdure, he can screen himself under the spreading foliage, where the falling fruit is ready to deepen the soil, or renew the parent tree in its decay.

A barren and inhospitable region re- * Plenck, Hygrology, p. 252. fuses the means of vegetable subsistence; he has of ten to contend with beasts of prey for the objects of pursuit, — the products of industry are unknown. What conceptions of the cravings of nature can be formed by us amidst the profusion with which we are always surrounded ? — teaching us impatience if only one of many daily meals be delayed. We re vel in superfluities ; but there are modern tribes who, like the Scythians of old, bind up their bodies to repress the ravening of hunger,* or endeavour to assuage it by swallowing lumps of earth and clay.f Reptiles, or nauseous insects, inspiring us with ab horrence, are greedily devoured : and the famished savage, instead of repining at the sterility of his country, feasts on the loathsome carcase of some huge monster cast up by the waves, rejoicing at the good fortune which so opportunely relieves his distresses.

If the territory he occupies be shared with fero cious animals, a mutual war is waged between them, wherein man must fall a frequent victim before his cruel enemy. If his superior power or cunning be triumphant, he becomes master of their spoils, which from trophies are converted into raiment. But mul- * Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticæ, lib. xvi. cap. 3. t Labillardiere, Voyage a la recherche de la Perouse, torn. ii. p. 305. Rossel, Voyage cVEntrecasteaux, torn. i. p. 340. X Collins' Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, vol. i. p. 556. Syme, Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, p. 134. Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 385. PERISHABLE CONDITION 4 titudes yet are strangers to the use of the simplest kind of clothing, who despise it as a veil, and com plain that it covers them with shame :* Nor do they know the means of constructing even the rudest habitations.

Projecting cliffs guard them from the tempest, and they retire to their repose in excava tions which have been fashioned without the inter vention of human art.f Constant exposure to rigorous climates, scanty and uncertain subsistence, accumulated hardships, operate sensibly both on the personal and mental constitution. The corporeal fabric is weak and ex tenuated, the nerveless mind is circumscribed with in the narrowest sphere : each is incapacitated for enterprise. How infinite the disparity, how im measurable is the distance, between the savage and cultivated man ! Let us be grateful for the dispen sations which have been showered upon us, and for the benefits inherited without any merits of our own. * Gilii, Saggio di Storia Americana, torn. ii. p. 46. Voyage a Guiane et a la Cayenne, p. 346.

Gumilla, Histoire de l'Oro noque, ch. 7- t Flinders, Voyage to Terra Australis, vol. ii. p. 145. Pe ron Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes, torn. i. var. loc. Lichtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii. p. 46. 93 : The Bosjeman " is fond of taking up his abode for the night in caverns among the mountains or clefts in the rocks : in the plain he makes himself a hole in the ground, or gets in to the midst of a bush, where, bending the boughs around him they are made to serve as a shelter against the weather or against an enemy, or against wild beasts." But for the progress of our forefathers, we, the most polished of nations, now might be roaming naked in the woods, sleeping in gloomy caverns, and sus taining ourselves by the chace, or the wild produc tions of spontaneous vegetation.

Independently of the difficulties with which man kind in possession of all their energies have to strug gle in the natural state, other and more awful visitations are incident to every condition. The earth is shaken to its foundations : mountains are over whelmed, floods and conflagrations burst forth, rivers forsaketheir channel — entire cities, withtheirwretch ed inhabitants, are absorbed in gulfs unfathomable — all is involved in promiscuous ruin. To change the face of the world is the work of a moment. Science enables us to read in its structure the con vulsions it has undergone ; and could we penetrate those dark ages where no record ascends, we should find generation after generation swept into eternity. Yet such is the hardihood of man — if himself es caping the havoc, his dwelling is reared amidst the J very scene of desolation : he ploughs, he sows, he awaits in thoughtless security to reap the harvest of his labours — but again is the strife renewed, and he and his posterity perish.* * Sarconi Istoria del Tremoto nelle Calabrie.

Vivenzio Sto ria de Tremuoti. Relation of the Earthquake at Lima, chap. 2. Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxvii. ; Fall of the mountain of Ro senberg in 1 806. Philosophical Transactions, vol. xviii. p. 1 0. 83. Vol. xlix. var. loc Humboldt Voyages, torn. i.p. 306. 509. PERISHABLE CONDITION 6 Notwithstanding he is safe from the elements, and personal exigencies be profusely satisfied, man must not delude himself in the vain belief that life is held by a firm tenure. It is ever ready to be reft from him. A fourth of the millions ushered to the light, do not see twelve months completed : half the human race die before the age of seven teen, and only a fourth of the living have surpassed the term of forty years. In certain countries few survive so long ; nor in the most salubrious does one in thousands attain a venerable age.* Legions are devoured by pestilence : distempers almost unheed ed in our temperate regions, spread terror and dismay in others.

" The husband forsakes his wife, the mo ther her children, and the son his father, often leaving them in their miserable huts to the ravages of famine, or the wild beasts of the forest. "f From dread of contagion, the infected is consumed in his dwelling by means of fiery arrows :± Doors are walled up to preclude his access ; or among the lower penalties on his affliction, he is banished to receptacles established on the high ways, there to pro- * Robert LTnfluence de la Revolution Francaise sur sa Po pulation, torn. i. p. 165. " At the village of Rucello de Ter mini in Sicily, few instances are upon record of any person's having exceeded the age of forty." — Bhquiere, Letters from the Mediterranean, vol. i. p. 13. t Cordiner, Description of Ceylon, vol. i. p. 354. X Molina, Geographical, Civil, and Natural History of Chi li, vol. i. p. 31.

These two authors allude to smallpox. tract a painful existence from the hand of casual charity.* Nevertheless, so rapid are the strides of mortality, so vast the wreck of mankind, that the survivors sometimes are scarcely in sufficient num bers to perform the last sad offices to their departed friends ;f and thus are not only the lesser tribes extirpated, but the territory of once powerful nations is reduced to dreary silence and solitude. We subsist in the proud confidence of uninterrupted felicity — to-morrow is not to bring us care. Inconsiderate mortals ! There is not an atom of the human frame exempt from disease and disfigura tion : innumerable maladies far short of threat ening life, yet intolerable, are secretly nurtured, and ready to manifest their virulence, the moment the body is prepared for them.

Unsightly tumours cover the skin 5| How many fair sufferers have re coiled in disgust from their own image, once beau tiful to behold ! That chief ornament of our race, the hair, and of those in whom it is the most orna mental, becomes agglutinated together, and inter woven in an inextricable mass, offensive and conta gious. § The limbs have grown distorted and re- * Savary, Lettres sur la Grece, p. 283 ; speaking of the le pers of Crete. t Russel, Natural History of Aleppo, vol. ii. p. 335. X Foderc, Traite du Goitre et du Cretinisme. Ramond Observations dans les Pyrennees, p. 204. § La Fontaine, Traite de la Pliquc Polonaise. Philosophi cal Transactions, vol. xxxvii. p. 50. 428 ; vol. xliv. p. 556 ; vol. for 1753, p. 297. PERISHABLE CONDITION 8 versed : nay, the bones themselves, so callous to ap pearance, have softened and dissolved during cor poreal decay.

These are awful pictures : but they disclose little of the truth ; for there is no species of misery whereof the utmost extremity is reserved from mankind. Even our animated system seems to be separated asunder by mental alienation, while the body flourishes in health and vigour. Have not parents besides to deplore, the imbecility, com bined with the deformity, of their offspring ? and some have been fated to shudder at having given birth to beings that scarcely exhibit the human form. * Man is therefore apparently a humble, a miserable, and a perishable creature ; and nature may seem to us less provident for the protection of individuals, than for the conservation of their race. But the distribution of good surpasses the subsisting evil; and it has pleased the omnipotent Author to pre serve an equilibrium among the parts of the universe, whereby all their functions are fulfilled.

The scene is hourly changing ; while, after the lapse of ages, the common balance continues undisturbed. Elsewhere we shall find that liberal compensations are dispensed to meet defects — that affliction is softened by resignation — that fortitude conquers * Moreau de la Sarthe Description des Principales Mon struosites dans l'Homme et dans les Animaux. Housset E carts de la Nature. Malebranche Recherche de la Verite, liv. ii. ch. 7. § 3. pain — that the fascination of mental embellishment disguises personal imperfections, and if, from its frailty, the earthly tenement disappears, in succes sive generations, intellectual benefits survive for the use of posterity. The universal harmonies are evidently disposed in regular arrangement, and connected by an endless chain. If some of the necessary links seem wanting, or in disorder, it is because their relation and con tinuity are invisible to human perceptions. — What is that creative power which has given an impulse to the boundless efficiency of nature — which has fashioned so many objects, so many creatures inde pendent of each other, so many parts divisible to infinity ?

The structure of the humblest utterly defies imitation : Scarcely can the most simple be intelligibly explained : The principle of life itself is wrapt in impenetrable mystery. — Our reflections are involuntarily carried beyond this mortal sphere. Let us not presumptuously arrogate, that in the course of a few and fleeting years our knowledge can compass the wonderful operations environing us : the wider the circle which the mind embraces, the more does it discover how great its own defi ciences, how admirable the novelties to be ex plored. Amidst the incessant repletion of the earth with mankind, amidst the constant decay and destruc tion, each of the countless millions quitting its sur face has been the theatre of an host of propensities JO PERISHABLE CONDITION OF MANKIND. and passions, and leaves a history behind.

Attempt ing to trace the most prominent of these to their sources — contemplating their use and their effects, in so far as permitted by our restricted understanding — will open up new and more interesting views of the world, at the same time that we shall gain some salutary principles for the government of our selves.

Chapter II. Evolution Of The Malevolent Affections

When the physical wants of man are supplied so as to leave no cravings of necessity, the mental affections of which he is susceptible, already in operation, begin to take a wider range, and to manifest themselves under multiplied forms. But previously, a kind of instinct, obscure and mysterious in its ori gin, whether resulting from some uneasy or from some pleasurable sensation, stimulates us either to seek or to shun a certain condition, and thus be trays our earliest inclinations. The passions are coeval with existence ; they precede and continue independent of reason, which flies before them, yielding up the human frame to their violence. Awakened by impressions real or imaginary on the senses, they inflame by gradual excitement to a ter rific paroxysm, which, after preserving a tumultuous mastery, subsides by corresponding transitions, per mitting reason to regain its empire.

Is this most precious gift, one which enables us to govern the world, bestowed for subjugation of the passions, or to invest us with the powers of discrimination ? Have we the faculty of repressing our propensities, our appetites, or passions, excepting while they remain in the lower stages? The deliberations of rea son and the paroxysms of passion, are of irrecoucile able quality : they cannot be harboured under the same tenement. The animal system, by a wonderful arrangement, being adapted for every modification, so as we sub sist in a solitary or a social state, there are infinite varieties of the passions developed for the purpose, first, of self-preservation and individual comfort, next, to cherish and protect our fellow-creatures. After this a vast and complicated series opens, which cannot be referred to either of these important principles designed by the benevolence of nature.

Man in a state of absolute tranquillity resembles an image : his features are placid and undisturbed ; his mind unoccupied, is prepared to receive its im pressions from every different sense. The lightning flashes, the thunder rolls, or he is pierced by a hid den foe. A sentiment of danger, or sudden wrath, ensues: he trembles, he flies, or he is inspirited to vengeance. Self-preservation instantly engages him. Fear and anger may be classed with the earliest affections: they are unfolded in the train of the senses themselves, they originate nearest to the mo ment of birth, and accompany us closest to the period of death. They are summoned into action du ring the shortest existence : and it is probable that self-preservation is their common object. All the finer order of sentimental emotions, love, sympathy, gratitude, or esteem, those which take an interest in the welfare of others, are of much later and more complex evolution.

Nature therefore de signs that our primary care shall be self. It is not until ensured of safety that we look around us, be gin to covet, to seize, and convert every thing to our use. Although the human race be universally suscep tible of impressions, because the same senses are universally distributed, and thence the rudiments of every passion implanted in the mind, each indi vidual is not alike liable to the commencement, the progress, and the excess of all. It is opposed by the peculiarities of the system. Certain passions are but slightly evolved, or entirely dormant, in some : in others they are blunted, or those the most readily kindled and once raging, are now quiescent, to be roused no more. Frequently the mental affections assume such a complicated aspect in their infinite shades, diversities, and combinations, as to distract the subjects of their operation, and confound the spectator attempting either to trace them to their source, or to follow them to their termination.

Instead of the original feelirg advancing by an ordinary progression to fulfil a definite purpose, it is absorbed in a strong er affection, which becoming vehement passion, then undergoes an inversion apparently adverse to the design of nature. Love is converted to hatred ; sympathy and antipathy coalesce. In the regular course, however, it appears, that, from the impression imparted by an image or an external object, sentiment, affection, and passion, are generated successively; that, the paroxysm over, the affection declines, the sentiment is weakened, the object obliterated, and tranquillity regained. But it is only their most simple aspect, and when plainly exhibited, that enables us to form conjec tures regarding the use and condition of the different affections of the mind : for they are liable be sides to innumerable capricious deviations, from what we hold as their ordinary progression, which cannot be referred to any distinct or rational cause.

If the senses be the medium of transmitting im pressions, whereby the mental energies are awaken ed, none can be bestowed in vain. It is evident that a universal harmony regulates the world, nor is it known that any of the arrangements subsisting are nugatory. But with the purpose of many of the leading and subordinate features we are mani festly unacquainted; and, owing to ourselves or to ac cidents, they seem, in our apprehension, to be de fective or defeated. Doubtless, all the senses are to be exercised, otherwise they would not have been gifted ; yet as we are far removed from a state of nature by the substitution of an artificial condition, we must guard against the immediate effect of their impres sions : They would lead into perpetual error and inconsistency. The senses are ever ready to deceive us, and the passions to send us astray.

Were we to trust to any one of the former without comparing and ana lysing the impressions upon it by some of the others, or without that previous experience which becomes habit, we should wander in endless fallacies. How imperfect a guide is sight to distance or magnitude, how easily is the hearing confounded by sounds, or the touch by substances for the first time offered ! Without a special shade for reference, who will agree on colours ? One object is believed to be larger or nearer than another, while it is actually smaller or more remote : the direction, intensity, and description of sounds, are continually mistaken ; and it is rarely that the touch of itself can distinguish what is presented to it. So it is with the other senses : they are scarcely to be trusted singly for communicating the truth.

Something more is necessary. They must be in combined and reci procal exercise : instead of confiding in one, we find ourselves obliged to assist and correct it by the rest. Their united operation conveys the reality free of its original obscurity to the mind. This repeated exercise becomes experience, which enables us to determine from simple perceptions without resort ing to analysis, and lays the foundation of the high est powers of judgment in discrimination. Never theless the fallibility of the senses is so great, the structure of the mental system so imperfect, we are so impatient of reflection, and our reason in itself is so weak and restricted, that we cannot escape er roneous conclusions, and that distinct view of the relation of things which constitutes knowledge is disguised from us.

Yet all that is said of the imperfection of the senses, applies to the cultivated or artificial state of man. Possibly in his natural condition they are adapted to every benefit or necessity: then, their only purpose may be to " render us acquainted with those things either useful or inconvenient." * Do not we witness the fact among those lations who subsist by the chace, or whose reciprocal alarms for injury excite a watchfulness and an exercise, whereby the senses, if not originally move perfect than among us, are wonderfully refined and improved ? But we cannot reason conclu sively on the pristine state of man. Except in the solitary instances which doubtful narratives record, what he may be in his first, his lowest and untu tored condition, is quite unknown; we can only judge from his approximations to it compared with his gradual advances through numerous stages to the highest polish imparted by civilization.

By this it is undoubted, that our propensities, dispositions, and habits, are eminently affected ; that no longer finding ourselves compelled to trust to the same sources of information regarding the properties of such things as are barely useful in a natural * Malebranche Recherche de la Verite, liv. i. ch. 6. § 2, 3. state, the organs of perception are allowed to re main unemployed : that besides we are so much in fluenced by example, education, and prejudice, that a partial alteration is effected in the corporeal frame, and an entire revolution in the intellectual system. The rudiments of nature indeed, so difficult to be quelled, occasionally break forth — but to be instant ly repressed and subjugated. Elucidations of the origin, the progress, the par oxysms, and subsidence of the passions, therefore, must be defective, for the proper sources of informa tion are unattainable ; they cannot extend beyond the artificial and complicated condition of the hu man race, where nature is confused by interference with her precepts.

We know that the passions are dormant, by having seen them rage : we conclude, that it is according to the relation between the in dividuals and the surrounding objects that they are generated, and it is obvious that they are unequal ly and irregularly evolved. Thus we must be con tent with studying the forms under which they are exhibited, for it is difficult to render more recondite investigations satisfactory. We speak familiarly of the laws of nature and elementary principles, though in truth we are ac quainted with neither; but beholding a uniform course, and being checked in attempting to discover the constituent basis of things, we conclude that all is directed by special ordinances, and that the ele ments are few. It is probable that they are so in VOL. I. C reality ; our whole condition resolves into good and evil, our whole reasoning into positive and negative, and every alternate position is direct or inverse.

But seemingly there is an intermediate stage, or an oscillatory state of suspense, longer or shorter, weak er or stronger, until at last the preponderance is decided. Perhaps the essence of the passions centers exclusively in the sense of good or evil, and although modified into a multitude of aspects and a multitude of names, according to complica tion and intensity, they chiefly resolve into two corresponding elementary principles, love and hate. Plausible arrangements may partition them, into selfish or private, where self holds the primary share, social or .public, which involve the interest of others, and antisocial, which originate in the desire to injure. But this is an arbitrary classification. Some concentrate all the passions in love alone. Some restrict their source to pleasure and pain : eleven distinct passions are enumerated by others ; and many consider those as different in essence, which differ only in their object or vehemence: nor do they sufficiently appreciate the effects of education.

Certainly the greater proportion of all the mental affections originate directly or indirect ly in love and hate, whether they be characterized as sympathy and antipathy, desire and aversion, benevolence and malevolence, or by other denomi nations. They spring from a feeling or sentiment of good or evil in regard to ourselves, either imagined, experienced, or contemplated, and they issue in the design of good or evil in relation to others.* Notwithstanding we may venture to assume the most prominent features of a few for the grounds of historical illustration, we must not pretend to deter mine the precise purpose of the various mental affections. We can only offer conjectures, in the course of which we shall find it necessary to be sa tisfied with consulting history rather than exacting definitions or demonstrations.