The benevolent affections are a kind of rewards of virtue, or incitements to the practice of it. They are acquired by exertion in society, in which alone our best faculties can be properly called forth. They are the flowers and the pleasing fruit, which at times may be gathered in the journey of life. Without them, beings of a feeble and imperfect character might have regarded that journey with despair, as passing through a desolate wilderness, filled only with thorns and brambles, and affording no recompense for their labour. As these affections arise from exertion, so, in their turn, they produce much energy of character. Attachment to friends, to a family, or to their country, induce men to engage in much care and labour, and to contrive a thousand schemes in which they would otherwise have had no concern. we acquire skill and vigour, and consequently a certain portion of excellence; and thus a man, who imagines he is only serving his friend, or providing for his family, is in truth, without thinking of it, gradually improving his own character in art and energy, and becoming a more perfect being.

Thus

It is true, that beings of a more excellent original constitution, possessing a greater aptitude for improvement, might not require such inducements to lead them to the possession of the small degree of perfection that can be acquired in

this oblique manner. The admiration of excellence might alone be sufficient to conduct them to the direct pursuit of intellectual improvement, and to induce them to attempt to diffuse it through the universe, that they might be surrounded by what is perfect and excellent. But such is the ignorance and the feebleness in which man commences his existence, and so little notion has he of the value of wisdom or strength of mind, that Providence has found it necessary to use a great variety of indirect means to rouse his latent energies, and put him into the way towards perfection. We are formed with feeble and perishing bodies, that their preservation may afford us something to contrive and to do; yet these bodies we would not have sense, nor take the trouble, to preserve, were we not compelled and allured to do so by bodily pain and pleasure. We are placed amidst society, that, by studying knowledge in different branches, and by communicating our thoughts or discoveries, our progress may be hastened and facilitated yet to that society we would pay no attention, were not the one half of the species made objects of sensual pleasure to the other; and were we not so formed, that one generation, as it were, creates the succeeding one, and supports it during a considerble period of its exist

ence.

Were the existence of man to endure long e

nough, it seems evident, that in wise men the benevolent affections, considered as mere habits, would pass away, and cease to make a part of their characters. The pleasure arising from activity, which was the original source of benevolence, would always indeed remain; but the affections are merely the result of an association of ideas, rendering us fond of those persons who recal the memory of past pleasures enjoyed in their society. In the progress towards perfection, this association, like every casual and arbitrary connection of ideas, would lose its effect; and we should learn to think and to act according to the steady dictates of truth and reason, approving, and being pleased only with what is excellent.

In the meantime, the duty of man, with regard to the benevolent affections, is nearly similar to his duty with regard to the animal appetites. Like them, our affections afford an index to the business in which Providence wishes us to engage. As the appetite of hunger indicates that we ought to labour to provide food for its gratification, so the affections shew that we are not designed to labour for ourselves alone. These truths and duties might have been discovered by wiser beings without the aid of such monitors; at least, now that they are discovered, we know that it would have been right to preserve our own existence, and to labour for the benefit of

ourselves and others, even though no appetites or affections had ever led us, as it were, instinctively to do so.

Our affections are so contrived by Nature that they produce a preponderance of good; but as they are blind and undiscriminating, they produce much evil also if left to themselves. They lead to much exertion in behalf of our families, friends, and country; but they also give rise to unjust partialities and preferences, which prove the source of hostilities and crimes. If they bind men in close ties of amity, they also bind them to support each other's passions, prejudices, and imaginary interests. Thus men come to be divided into parties; and wars and desolation arise out of the benevolent affections. The attachment to a family anciently engaged every man in deadly feud against some other family. The spirit of corporation and of faction originates in mens fondness for forming particular attachments and friendships. It was the benevolent affections, under the form of patriotism, that led Rome to desolate the world; and thus the most extensive calamities are produced by these affections, if they are suffered to regulate our conduct, and are not placed under the controul of reason.

They who imagine that benevolence is the perfection of our nature, have given rules for cultivating it in the human character. These

rules are, for two reasons, altogether superfluous: first, because a blind affection or tendency can never constitute the perfection of an intelligent being; and, secondly, because our affections grow up spontaneously, and require no culture. If men are only in the midst of society, and active in it, there is little doubt that they will become attached to some part of its members at least; but this is not the business of man. To contract irrational partialities is no part of the perfection of his character. His employment ought to be, to judge with clearness of what is excellent and right, and to become what he approves. Thus he will ultimately love only the wise and the amiable; and thus will he himself be regarded with approbation by every intelligent being.

CHAP. XI.

OF THE MALEVOLENT AFFECTIONS AND PASSIONS.

As the benevolent affections are produced by the pleasures we enjoy in society, so the malevolent affections derive their existence from the