some of them at times in the brute creation-the off

spring of pure nature.

These Benevolent Affections display themselves in various ways towards others, as in parental and filial Affection, in Sympathy or Compassion for the afflicted and distressed, in Esteem and Veneration for the wise, generous, and good, in Gratitude towards our bene factors, in Friendship for those of kindred sentiments and feelings, &c.

Now, he must entertain a mean and contracted notion of human nature, who can see nothing in the kind impulse of these Affections, but a secret and selfish view to our own interest; making the ground of Attachment, of Generosity, and of the Social Union, to consist in the cold calculations of Self-love, and not in the warm unpremeditated feelings of natural Benevolence.

Every one of these impulses was given us by the provident Author of Nature, for claims of social good, which Reason would be too slow to answer, too cold to estimate, and too formal to fulfil.

Nay, we find that, in proportion as Reason obtains the ascendancy, subjecting thought and motive and action to rigid rule, feeling is superseded, and natural impulse becomes weak, The heart has then no voice, and is not permitted to dictate to the head. The warmth of youthful emotion is chilled by the caution of age. Liberality may indeed discover itself; but its offerings are like the tardy fruits which a rigid plant in some churlish soil is compelled to

yield by stubborn labour: while the other may be compared to those supplies which bountiful nature, in the warmth of a genial climate, pours forth in spontaneous abundance. However age and intercourse with the world may tend to chill these natural emotions, and to make considerations of interest enter into every act and motive; it is certain, that the warm-hearted youth has no conception that he is playing the game of Self-love, while he is acting under the influence of Pity, Gratitude, or Friendship, or submitting with cheerfulness to toilsome privations, for the support of a destitute parent.

When an anxious mother extends her numerous cares, and deprives herself of many comforts for the sake of her beloved offspring;-when a good Samaritan pours in the oil and wine to allay the sufferings of some afflicted stranger;—when a man is impelled by the ardour of feeling to rush into the flames or to plunge into the sea, at the risk of his own life, to rescue a fellow mortal from imminent danger ;-when an act of unlooked-for kindness has made such an impression, that Gratitude swells in the heart and speaks in the language of sincerity from every feature, seeking every occasion to show the obligation more than to repay the debt,-can we believe that, in any of these instances, self-love, or the prospect of some advantage remote or near, is the spring of action; and would not the individuals, actuated by such Affections, turn with a natural surprise, mingled with amiable contempt, from any one, as though he were callous

to the noblest feelings of human nature, who would so far belie their motives as to insinuate that interest was their object?

When Speculation, for it does not deserve the name of Philosophy, will not hear the voice of nature, it leaves the straight-forward path that leads to Truth. But the voice of nature cannot be mistaken on this question; and therefore the Selfish System must be pronounced to be more visionary than true.

It must indeed be admitted that the Benevolent Affections are possessed in very different measures or proportions by different individuals,—in some, one or more of these active principles nearly absorbing all others, in many, what is called Goodness of Nature making up the strongest feature in the character,— and in others, a seeming apathy throwing its shade over every social endearment. Yet amidst all the natural varieties, which this part of the mental constitution presents to our notice, an example of pure unmixed selfishness is almost anomalous in the human family. For I do not here speak of those miserable objects, who, by brooding over wealth have extinguished the sparks of generosity, and, to their far greater loss, have nearly smothered the sparks of virtue; like aliens from God and man, forsaking both, for that which was given them by their Maker, not as an idol to be worshipped, but as an instrument in their hands to benefit their fellow-creature.-Nor yet do I speak of those isolated beings, who, from whatever cause, by voluntary seclusion, and a studied morose

ness, have perverted their best feelings so as to acquire an insensibility to social enjoyments, and almost a hatred of their species.

These are blots in the fair scheme of social order, swerving alike from human and from natural institutions, and alike disowned by humanity and by reason. They appear to serve no end in the creation, but as beacons, to warn others to shun the poison of corroding solitude, which dries up the fountain of social warmth and virtue in the heart; and to avoid the early tomb in which the votary of Riches buries, amidst his hoards, his usefulness and his best affections, becoming dead, as it were, to the world, before the appointed time when he is called upon to surrender for others' use what he has neglected to employ.

16

It seems to have been a two-fold error in the philosophy of Pope, that he made Self-love to comprehend the whole active principles on the one hand and Reason to comprehend the regulating balance, check, and supreme authority, on the other. For, besides Self-love, if Appetite and Desire may be included in the term, we have the several disinterested Affections of which I have spoken, as springs of action: And besides the "comparing balance" of Reason, we have a still higher principle, Conscience, to preside and govern.

CHAP. VII.

OF CONSCIENCE AND ITS SIGNIFICATIONS,INCLUDING REMARKS ON THE REASONINGS OF LOCKE ON INNATE MORAL PRINCIPLES.

SECT. I.

Of its comprehensive Signification.

FROM what has been last stated we may conclude that there is a principle in Man, to which all his Appetites, Desires and Affections, as well as his rational or intellectual nature ought to be subservient. For, as his rational or intellectual nature may be wholly employed in ministering to the indulgence of these lower propensities; seeing we have around us the proofs of system, skill, experience, knowledge, art, in numerous instances where the moral good either of individuals or of society is not even once presumed to be the ultimate object (and into all these combinations of means to ends Reason essentially enters,) it follows, that Reason itself must be subjected and sanctified by some higher principle. For, it is the very nature and business of the rational faculty to be occupied in the things of time; or, if it chance to contemplate the things of eternity, in