| The affection of parents to their young proceeds from a peculiar instinct in animals, as well as in our species. |
| It is evident, that sympathy, or the communication of passions, takes place among animals, no less than among men. |
| Fear, anger, courage, and other affections are frequently communicated from one animal to another, without their knowledge of that cause, which produced the original passion. |
| Grief likewise is received by sympathy; and produces almost all the same consequences, and excites the same emotions as in our species. |
| The howlings and lamentations of a dog produce a sensible concern in his fellows. |
| And it is remarkable, that though almost all animals use in play the same member, and nearly the same action as in fighting; a lion, a tyger, a cat their paws; an ox his horns; a dog his teeth; a horse his heels: Yet they most carefully avoid harming their companion, even though they have nothing to fear from his resentment; which is an evident proof of the sense brutes have of each other's pain and pleasure. |
| Every one has observed how much more dogs are animated when they hunt in a pack, than when they pursue their game apart; and it is evident this can proceed from nothing but from sympathy. |
| It is also well known to hunters, that this effect follows in a greater degree, and even in too .great a degree, where two packs, that are strangers to each other, are joined together. |
| We might, perhaps, be at a loss to explain this phaenomenon, if we had not experience of a similar in ourselves. |
| Envy and malice are passions very remarkable in animals. |
| They are perhaps more common than pity; as requiring less effort of thought and imagination. |
| PART III OF THE WILL AND DIRECT PASSIONS |
| SECT. I OF LIBERTY AND NECESSITY |
| We come now to explain the direct passions, or the impressions, which arise immediately from good or evil, from pain or pleasure. |
| Of this kind are, desire and aversion, grief and joy, hope and fear. |
| Of all the immediate effects of pain and pleasure, there is none more remarkable than the WILL; and though properly speaking, it be not comprehended among the passions, yet as the full understanding of its nature and properties, is necessary to the explanation of them, we shall here make it the subject of our enquiry. |
| I desire it may be observed, that by the will, I mean nothing but the internal impression we feel and are conscious of, when we knowingly give rise to any new motion of our body, or new perception of our mind. |
| This impression, like the preceding ones of pride and humility, love and hatred, it is impossible to define, and needless to describe any farther; for which reason we shall cut off all those definitions and distinctions, with which philosophers are wont to perplex rather than dear up this question; and entering at first upon the subject, shall examine that long disputed question concerning liberty and necessity; which occurs so naturally in treating of the will. |
| It is universally acknowledged, that the operations of external bodies are necessary, and that in the communication of their motion, in their attraction, and mutual cohesion, there are nor the least traces of indifference or liberty. |
| Every object is determined by an absolute fate toa certain degree and direction of irs motion, and can no more depart from that precise line, in which it moves, than it can convert itself into an angel, or spirit, or any superior substance. |
| The actions, therefore, of matter are to be regarded as instances of necessary actions; and whatever is in this respect on the same footing with matter, must be acknowledged to be necessary. |