An ethical treatise on the passions : founded on the principles investigated in the Philosophical treatise / by T. Cogan.

  • Cogan, T. (Thomas), 1736-1818.
Date:
1807-1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An ethical treatise on the passions : founded on the principles investigated in the Philosophical treatise / by T. Cogan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    628/828 (page 302)
    ccption ot brioht scenes beyond it. Complacency will acquiesce in present laboui-s, pains, and trou- bles, by viewing them as the necessary means of obtaining some future, permanent good, which will more than indemnify for the present distress. Its exciting causes are designed exertions for some beneficial purpose, planned and conducted with wisdom:; and when these characteristics are obvi- ous, it can always acquiesce, and sometimes rejoice. The benefits of an affection which is able to discover Good, while it lies immersed in surrounding Evils, and to rejoice in nominal evil as the instrument of good, are too numerous and extensive to permit enlargement, and are too in- teresting to be fully appreciated. Although Desire has nothing pleasing in itself, its characteristic being that restless sensation, which is excited by the perception of something unplea- sant and imperfect in our state; and although ex- travagant desires and fruitless wishes, constitute much of the misery of human life ; yet when de- sires are rational and moderate, when they are di- rected towards proper objects, and when stimulated to proper pursuits, the pleasure attending* either mental or corporeal exertions, united with the hope of success, more than counterbalances the uneasiness they occasion. Desire is distinguished from an inactive and impotent wish, by the suppo- sition that the object desired is in itself attainable;