selves, gives them a hold upon our sympathies These sympathetic feelings, which draw men towards each other, and unite them in fraternities, nations, societies, are not selfish, since they have no reference to our own happiness, but to the happiness of others. They and the acts to which they lead may and do tend to our own happiness as much, if not more, than any other feelings and acts; but our own happiness is not their prompting cause or aim. The sympathy which leads one, at the risk of his life, to rescue a drowning man, does not surely spring from a regard to his own happiness, but from fellow-feeling with another. That men often pretend to act from such feelings, when they do not, is very true; but that men may, and frequently do, act from disinterested motives, is clear. - 7. Organic or vital feelings. There is also a large class of feelings, which, froin being localized in different organs of the body, may be called organic or vital feelings. Such are the various sensations determined in our organs by the influence or contact of external objects. Such, also, are the feelings arising from disease, disorganization, pressure, or the exertion of the muscles. Under this class of feelings, too, though of a somewhat different nature, belong the appetites, as hunger and thirst, since they consist in, or are accompanied by, certain organic feelings. In hunger, there is an uneasy feeling in the stomach, independently of the presence or thought of any appetizing object. Our hunger may suggest such objects, but they are not necessarily the cause of it. 8. Sentiments. The feelings determined more strictly by mental perceptions are usually denominated sentiments. These are such as curiosity or wonder, awakened by what we perceive around us, and leading, in turn, to a closer scrutiny and study of these objects; the convictions of truth and duty, connected with the perceptions of the true and the right; the feeling of shame from the consciousness of having done a shameful thing, and of in dignation at the wicked acts of another; also, the sense of beauty and deformity arising from the perception or thought of comely or uncomely objects. In general, all the moral and æsthetic feelings, and all the more ennobling and rational feelings of our nature, belong to this class. 9. Desire and will. As we have already seen, what we feel a delight or complacency in we necessarily desire-i. e., feel the want of, crave, or tend towards. Desire is thus a blind tendency towards something which seems to us desirable, and hence a tendency towards an act. But there may be many such desires soliciting us at the same time to different acts. Hence there may be before the mind. the question simply of action or non-action, or of action in this, that, or the other way. In either case, a choice must be made. We may be determined in our choice either by the strongest impulse for the moment, by a simple regard to our own interest, or by a regard to what is right in view of all the con siderations in the case. But, however deter mined, when we have made our choice, the question is settled, and the final impulse to the execution is given by the will. Thus our feelings of interest in something produce a tendency towards an act, the tender cy is al· lowed by the reason, and is carried nto exo cution by the will. CHAPTER III. VIRTUOUS ACTION PRESUPPOSES THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL.. 1. We hold men responsible for their conduct. We all ascribe virtue and vice to each other. In like manner the Scriptures charge sin upon men, and address them as responsible to God for their conduct. "For we have before proved," says the apostle Paul, "both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." We daily commend or condemn men for their acts, and assign them a place of respectability or of infamy in society according as we regard their conduct and character as right or wrong. And we do the same with ourselves also. We approve or disapprove our own conduct and character, according as we are conscious to ourselves that we are actuated by |