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THE DIFFERENT SCIENCES AND ARTS
Are digested into the FORM of Distinct

TREATISES

OR SYSTEM S

COMPREHENDING

The HISTORY, THEORY, and PRACTICE, of each,
according to the Latest Discoveries and Improvements;

AND FULL EXPLANATIONS GIVEN OF THE

VARIOUS DETACHED PARTS OF KNOWLEDGE,

WHETHER RELATING TO

NATURAL and ARTIFICIAL Objects, or to Matters ECCLESIASTICAL,
CIVIL, MILITARY, COMMERCIAL, &C.

Including ELUCIDATIONS of the most important Topics relative to RELIGION, MORALE,.
MANNERS, and the OECONOMY of LIFE:

TOGETHER WITH

A DESCRIPTION of all the Countries, Cities, principal Mountains, Seas, Rivers, &c.
throughout the WORLD;

A General HISTORY, Ancient and Modern, of the different Empires, Kingdoms, and States;

AND

An Account of the LIVES of the moft Eminent Perfons in every Nation,

from the earlieft ages down to the present times.

Compiled from the writings of the beft Authors, in feveral languages; the most approved Dictionaries, as well of general science as of its parti
cular branches; the Tranfactions, Journals, and Memoirs, of Learned Societies, both at home and abroad; the MS. Lectures of
Eminent Profeffors on different sciences; and a variety of Original Materials, furnifbed by on Extensive Correspondence.

THE THIRD EDITION, IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES, GREATLY IMPROVED.

ILLUSTRATED WITH FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO COPPERPLATES.

VOL. XIV.

INDOCTI DISCANT, ET AMENT MEMINISSE PERITI.

EDINBURG H

PRINTED FOR A. BELL AND C. MACFARQUHAR

MDCCXCVIL

Entered in Stationers Hall in Terms of the A& of Parliament.

Pafliflora.

PA

PAS

ASSIFLORA, or PASSION-FLOWER: A genus of the pentandria order, belonging to the gynandria elafs of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 34th order, Cucurbitacea. The calyx is pentaphyllous; there are five petals; the nectarium a crown; the berry is pedicillated. There are near 30 different fpecies; all of them natives of warm foreign countries, only one of which is fufficiently hardy to fucceed well in the open ground here; all the others requiring the fhelter of a green-house or stove, but chiefly the latter. The most remarkable are,

1. The cærulea, or blue-rayed common palmated paffion-flower, hath long, flender, fhrubby, purplishgreen talks, branchy, and afcending upon fupport by their clafpers 30 or 40 feet high; with one large palmated leaf at each joint, and at the axillas large fpreading flowers, with whitish-green petals, and a blue radiated nectarium; fucceeded by a large, oval, yellow ifh fruit. It flowers from July until October; the flowers are very large, confpicuous, and their compofition is exceedingly curious and beautiful. The general ftructure of the fingular flowers of this plant is, they come out at the axillas on pedunculi about three inches long, which they terminate, each flower having just close under the calyx a three-lobed involucrum-like appendage; a five-lobed calyx, and a five-petalous corolla, the fize, figure, and colour of the calyx, &c. the petals arranging alternately with the calicinal lobes; the whole, including the involucrum, calyx, ar.! corol. la, make juft 13 lobes and petals, all expanded flat: and within the corolla is the nectarium, compofed of a multitude of thread-like fibres, of a blue and purple colour, difpofed in circular rays round the column of the fructification; the outer ray is the longeft, flat, and spreading on the petala; the inner is fhort, erect, and narrows towards the centre: in the middle is an érect cylindric club-fhaped column or pillar, crowned with the roundish germen, having at its bafe five hori. zontal spreading filaments, crowned with incumbent yellow antheræ, that move about every way; and from the fide of the germen arife three flender spreading fyles, terminated by headed ftigmas: the germen afterwards gradually becomes a large oval fleshy fruit, ripening to a yellowifh colour.--Thefe wenderful flowers are only of one day's duration, generally open: ing about 11 or 12 o'clock, and frequently in hot funny weather burft open with elafticity, and continue fully expanded all that day: and the next they gradu. ally clofe, affuming a decayed-like appearance, and never open any more; the evening puts a period to their existence, but they are fucceeded by new ones VOL. XIV. Part I.

PAS

Paffion.

daily on the fame plant.-This plant and flowers are Paffiflora, held in great veneration in fome foreign Catholic countries, where the religious make the leaves, tendrils, and different parts of the flower, to reprefent the inftruments of our blefied Saviour's paffion; hence the name pasiflora.

2. The incarnata, incarnated, or flesh coloured Italian paffion-flower, hath a ftrong perennial root; flender, herbaceous ftalks, rifing upon fupport four or five feet high; leaves compofed of three fawed lobes, each leaf attended by a twining tendril; and at the axillas long flender pedunculi, terminated each by one whitish flower, having a greenish calyx, and a red fish or purple radiated nectarium, furrounding the column of the fructification, which fucceed to a large, round, fleshy fruit, ripening to a beautiful orange colour.-The flowers of this fpecies are alfo very beautiful, though of fhort duration, opening in the morning, and night puts a period to their beauty; but they are fucceeded by a daily fupply of new ones.-The fruit of this fort is alfo very ornamental, as ripening to a fine reddifh orange colour; but these rarely attain perfection here, unless the plants are placed in the ftove; therefore when there is fuch accommodation, it highly merits. that indulgence, where it will exhibit both flowers and green and ripe fruit, all at the fame time, in a beautiful manner.

3. The vefpertilio, or bat's-wing paffion-flower, hath flender, ftriated, branchy ftalks; large, bilobate, or two-lobed leaves, the bafe roundish and glandular, the lobes acute, widely divaricated like a bat's wings, and dotted underneath; and axillary flowers, having white petals and rays. The leaves of this fpecies have a fingular appearance, the two lobes being expanded fix or seven inches wide, refembling the wings of a bat upon flight; hence the name vefpertilio.

As all the fpecies are natives of warm climates, in this country they are mostly of a tender quality, except the first fort, which fucceeds very well in the full ground, in a warm fituation;, only their young branches are fometimes killed in very fevere winters; but plenty of new ones generally rife again in fpring following: the others, denominated flove kinds, muit always be retained in that repolitary.

PASSION, is a word of which, as Dr Reid ob' ferves, the meaning is not precifely afcerrained either in common difcourfe or in the writings of philofophers. In its original import, it denotes every feeling of the mind occafioned by an extrinfic caufe; but it is generally used to fignify fome agitation of mind, oppofed to that state of tranquillity in which a man is most A

mafter

incited to crush to atoms. Such conduct is certainly Paffion. not rational, and therefore it is fupposed to be neceffarily inftinétive.

Paflion. mafter of himself. That it was thus ufed by the Greeks and Romans, is evident from Cicero's rendering zabos, the word by which the philofophers of Greece expreffed it; by perturbatio in Latin. In this fenfe of the word, paffion cannot be itself a diftin&t and independent principle of action; but only an occafional degree of vehemence given to those difpofitions, defires, and affections, which are at all times prefent to the mind of man; and that this is its proper fenfe, we need no other proof than that paffion has always been conceived to bear analogy to a form at sea or to a tempeft in the air.

With refpect to the number of paffions of which the mind is fufceptible, different opinions have been held by different authors. Le Brun, a French writer on painting, juftly confidering the expreffion of the paffions as a very important as well as difficult branch of his art, has enumerated no fewer than twenty, of which the figns may be expreffed by the pencil on canvafs. That there are fo many different ftates of mind producing different effects which are visible on the features and the geftures, and that thofe features and geftures ought to be diligently ftudied by the artift, are truths which cannot be denied ; but it is abfurd to confider all these different ftates of mind as paffions, fince tranquillity is one of them, which is the reverse of paffion.

The common divifion of the paffions inte defire and averfion, hope and fear, joy and grief, love and hatred, has been mentioned by every author who has treated of them, and needs no explication; but it is a queftion of fome importance in the philofophy of the human mind, whether thefe different paffions be each a degree of an original and innate difpofition, diftin&t from the difpofitions which are refpectively the foundations of the other paffions, or only different modifications of one or two general difpofitions common to the whole

race.

The former opinion is held by all who build their fyftem of metaphyfics upon a number of diftinct internal fenfes; and the latter is the opinion of those who, with Locke and Hartley, refolve what is commonly called instinct into an early affociation of ideas. (See INSTINCT). That without deliberation mankind inftantly feel the paffion of fear upon the apprehenfion of danger, and the paffion of anger or refentment upon the reception of an injury, are truths which cannot be denied: and hence it is inferred, that the feeds of these paffions are innate in the mind, and that they are not generated, but only fwell to magnitude on the profpect of their refpective objects. In fupport of this argument, it has been obferved that children, without any knowledge of their danger, are inftinctively afraid on being placed on the brink of a precipice; and that this paffion contributes to their fafety long before they acquire, in any degree equal to their neceffities, the exercise of their rational powers. Deliberate anger, caused by a voluntary injury, is acknowledged to be in part founded on reafon and reflection; but where anger impels one fuddenly to return a blow, even without thinking of doing mifchief, the paffion is in inctive. In proof of this, it is obferved, that inftinctive anger is frequently raised by bodily pain, occafioned even by a fteck or a stone, which inftantly becomes an object of refentment, that we are violently

With refpect to other paffions, fuch as the luft of power, of fame, or of knowledge, innumerable inftances, fays Dr Reid, occur in life, of men who facrifice to them their ease, their pleasure, and their health. But it is abfurd to fuppofe that men fhould facrifice the end to what they defire only as means of promoting that end; and therefore he feems to think that thefe paflions must be innate. To add ftrength to this reafoning, he obferves, that we may perceive fome degree of these principles even in brute animals of the more fagacious kind, who are not thought to defire means for the fake of ends which they have in view.

But it is in accounting for the paffions which are difinterefted that the advocates for innate principles feem moft completely to triumph. As it is impoffible not to feel the paffion of pity upon the prospect of a fellow-creature in diftrefs, they argue, that the bafis of that paffion must be innate; becaufe pity, being at all times more or lefs painful to the perfon by whom it is felt, and frequently of no use to the person who is its object, it cannot in fuch inftances be the refult of deliberation, but merely the exertion of an original inftinct. The fame kind of reafoning is employed to prove that gratitude is the exercise of an innate principle. That good offices are, by the very conftitution of our nature, apt to produce good will towards the benefactor, in good and bad men, in the favage and in the civilized, cannot furely be denied by any one in the leaft acquainted with human nature. We are grateful not only to the benefactors of ourselves as individuals, but alfo to the benefactors of our country; and that, too, when we are conscious that from our grati tude neither they nor we can reap any advantage, Nay, we are impelled to be grateful even when we have reason to believe that the objects of our gratitude know not our exiftence. This paffion cannot be the effect of reasoning, or of affociation founded on reafoning; for, in fuch cafes as those mentioned, there are no principles from which reafon can infer the propriety or usefulness of the feeling. That public spirit, or the affection which we bear to our country, or to any fubordinate community of which we are members, is founded on inftin&; is deemed fo certain, that the man deftitute of this affection, if there be any fuch, has been pronounced as great a monfter as he who has two heads.

All the diftinterefted paffions are founded on what philofophers have termed benevolent affection. Inftead therefore of enquiring into the origin of each paffion feparately, which would fwell this article to no pur pofe, let us liften to one of the finest writers as well as ableft reafoners of the age, treating of the origin of benevolent affection, "We may lay it down as at Elays principle (fays Dr Reid +), that all benevolent affec-the active tions are in their nature agreeable; that it is effential Powers of to them to defire the good and happiness of their objects; and that their objects must therefore be beings capable of happiness. A thing may be defired either on its own account, or as the means in order to fomething else. That only can properly be called an object of defire which is defired upon its own account;

and

Man.

we think an attentive obferver may cafily perceive Paffion, how the feeds of it are gradually infufed into the youthful mind; when the child, from being at first a timid creatúre fhrinking from every pain, learns by degrees to return blow for blow and threat for threat.

But instead of urging what appears to ourselves of moft weight againtt the inftinctive fyftem, we shall lay before our readers a few extracts from a differtation on the Origin of the Paffions by a writer whose elegance of language and ingenuity of investigation do honour to the school of Hartley.

Paffion. and therefore I confider as benevolent thofe affections only which defire the good of their object ultimately, and not as means in order to fomething else. To fay that we defire the good of others, only to procure fome pleasure or good to ourselves, is to fay that there is no benevolent affection in human nature. This indeed has been the opinion of fome philofophers both in ancient and in later times. But it appears as unreasonable to refolve all benevolent affections into felf-love, as it would be to refolve hunger and thirft into felf love. These appetites are neceffary for the prefervation of the individual. Benevolent affections are no lefs neceffary for the prefervation of fociety among men; without which men would become an eafy prey to the beafts of the field. The benevolent affections planted in human nature, appear therefore no lefs neceffary for the preservation of the human species than the appetites of hunger and thirft." In a word, pity, gratitude, friendship, love, and patriotifm, are founded on different benevolent affections; which our learned author holds to be original parts of

the human conftitution.

This reafoning has certainly great force; and if authority could have any weight in fettling a question of this nature, we know not that name to which greater deference is due than the name of him from whom it is taken. Yet it must be confeffed that the philofophers, who confider the affections and paffions as early and deep-rooted affociations, fupport their opinion with very plaufible arguments. On their principles we have endeavoured elsewhere to account for the paffions of fear and love, (fee INSTINCT and LOVE); and we may here fafely deny the truth of what has been ftated respecting fear, which feems to militate against that account. We have attended with much folicitude to the actions of children; and have no reason to think that they feel terror on the brink of a precipice till they have been repeatedly warned of their danger in fuch fituations by their parents or their keepers. Every person knows not only that they have no original or inftinctive dread of fire, which is as dangerous to them as any precipice; but that it is extremely difficult to keep them from that deftructive element till they are either capable of weighing the force of arguments, or have repeatedly experienced the pain of be. ing burnt by it. With refpect to fudden refentment, we cannot help confidering the argument, which is brought in proof of its being inftinctive, as proving the contrary in a very forcible manner. Inftinct is fome mysterious influence of God upon the mind exciting to actions of beneficial tendency: but can any benefit arise from wrecking our impotent vengeance on a stock or a stone? or is it fuppofable that a Being of infinite wisdom would excite us to actions fo extrava

gantly foolish? We learn from experience to defend ourfelves against rational or fenfible enemies by retaliating the injuries which they inflict upon us; and if we have been often, injured in any particular manner, the idea of that injury becomes in time fo closely affociated with the means by which it has been conftantly repelled, that we never receive fuch an injury-a blow for inftance-without being prompted to make the ufual retaliation, without reflecting whether the object be fenfible or infenfible. So far from being inftinctive does refentment appear to us, that

tions Meta

physical and

"When an infant is born (fays Dr Sayers*), there* Difquifiis every reafon to fuppofe that he is born without ideas. These are rapidly communicated through the Literary medium of the fenfes. The fame fenfes are also the means of conveying to him pleasure and pain. These are the hinges on which the paffions turn: and till the child is acquainted with these fenfations, it would appear that no paffion could be formed in his mind; for till he has felt pleasure and pain, how can he defire any object, or wish for its removal? How can he either love or hate? Let us obferve then the manner in which love and hatred are formed; for on these paffions depend all the reft. When a child endures pain, and is able to detect the caufe of it, the idea of pain is connected in his mind with that of the thing which produced it; and if the object which occafioned pain be again prefented to the child, the idea of pain affociated with it arifes alfo. This idea confequently urges the child to avoid or to remove the object; and thus arifes the paffion of diflike or hatred. In the fame manner, the paffion of liking or love is readily formed in the mind of a child from the affociation of pleasant ideas with certain objects which produced them.

"The paffions of hope and fear are ftates of the mind depending upon the good or bad profpects of gratifying love or hatred; and joy or forrow arifes from the final fuccefs or disappointment which attends the exertions produced by love or by hatred. Out of thefe paffions, which have all a perceptible relation to our own good, and are univerfally acknowledged to be felfish, all our other paffions are formed."

To account for the paffions called difinterefted, he obferves, that in the hiftory of the human mind we find many inftances of our dropping an intermediate idea, which has been the means of our connecting two other ideas together; and that the affociation of thefe two remains after the link which originally united them has vanished. Of this fact the reader will find fufficient evidence in different articles of this work (See INSTINCT, no 19, and METAPHYSICS, no 101). and, to apply it to the difinterefted paffions, let us fuppofe, with Dr Sayers, that any individual has done to us many offices of kindnefs, and has confequently much contributed to our happiness; it is natural for us to feek with fome anxiety for the continuance of thote pleasures which he is able to communicate. But we foon difcern, that the fureft way of obtaining the continuance of his friendly offices is to make them, as much as poffible, a fource of pleasure to himself. We therefore do every thing in our power to promote his happiness in return for the good he has conferred upon us, that thus we may attach him to us as much as we are able. Hitherto all is plainly feifith. We have been evidently endeavouring, for the fake of our own future A .2

grati

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