Poems (Davidson)/Sensibility
SENSIBILITY.
In this delicate emotion of the human mind there is a mixture of danger and delight; it may be indulged moderately, with pleasure to its possessor, but uncontrolled, it brings in its train a succession of ideal miseries, and sensations of acute pain or exquisite delight.
It often causes the heart to shrink with sensitive horror from difficulties in the path of life, slightly noticed, or scarcely perceptible to the mind well governed by reason, or fortified by principle. Lively sensibility may be considered as the key-stone of the heart; it often unguardedly unlocks the treasures confided to its care, and pouring forth the full tide of feeling, the warmest impulses of the soul are wasted upon trifles or squandered on objects insignificant to the eye of reason, and frequently exposes the feeling heart to contempt and ridicule.
Deep and delicate sensibility, that feeling of the soul which shrinks from observation and pours itself forth in secret calm retirement, must certainly, by its dignity and sacred character, cause feelings of reverence for its possessor. Jesus wept over the grave of his departed friend; his sensibility was aroused, and He shed tears of sorrow over the dark wreck of a once noble fabric in the mouldering remnants of mortality before him. His prophetic soul gazed upon wide scenes of future desolation. He felt for the miseries of mankind; He pitied their folly and wept over the final destruction of the human frame, undermined by sin and borne down by death.