Book 2
8.12
The persons men pity are those whom they know, provided they are not too closely connected with them for if they are, they feel the same as if they themselves were likely to suffer. This is why AmasisHdt. 3.14, where the story is told, not of Amasis, by of his son Psammenitus. is said not to have wept when his son was led to execution, but did weep at the sight of a friend reduced to beggary, for the latter excited pity, the former terror. The terrible is different from the pitiable, for it drives out pity, and often serves to produce the opposite feeling.
8.13
Further, the nearness of the terrible makes men pity.Jebb renders: Again men pity when the danger is near themselves, which may mean when they see something terrible happening to others and likely soon to befall themselves. Vahlen inserts οὐ γὰρ before ἔτι: for men cease to pity when the terrible comes close to themselves. Men also pity those who resemble them in age, character, habits, position, or family; for all such relations make a man more likely to think that their misfortune may befall him as well. For, in general, here also we may conclude that all that men fear in regard to themselves excites their pity when others are the victims.
8.14
And since sufferings are pitiable when they appear close at hand, while those that are past or future, ten thousand years backwards or forwards, either do not excite pity at all or only in a less degree, because men neither expect the one nor remember the other, it follows that those who contribute to the effect by gestures, voice, dress, and dramatic action generally, are more pitiable; for they make the evil appear close at hand, setting it before our eyes as either future or past.
8.15
And disasters that have just happened or are soon about to happen excite more pity for the same reason.
