THIRDLY, To sympathy, which makes us partake of the satisfaction of every one, that approaches us.

All these principles may concur in producing the present phaenomenon.

The question is, to which of them we ought principally to ascribe it.
It is certain, that the first principle, viz, the reflection on agreeable objects, has a greater influence, than what, at first sight, we may be apt to imagine.

We seldom reflect on what is beautiful or 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.