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to remove or prevent vice, the parent of misery, are in general known only to Him who seeth in secret. Even in cases where much is obvious, what diversity shall we find in opinion; and where the co-operation of individuals for the benefit of others is necessary, how improbable that they should have formed the same standard.

87. But admit that the cases are clear, that the person whom we are about to leave to death is, obviously and decisively, a less important member of society than he whom we attempt to save, if we violate none of those feelings which rise up in the human frame altogether independently of the will of the individual, there can be no hesitation; but suppose that our proposed conduct will violate them-let it first be considered, that they are not only necessary to the culture, nay even to the formation of individual benevolence, but to the well or dering, perhaps to the very existence, of so ciety. Take the strongest case, suppose the filial and parental affections to be annihilated, (and it is absurd to justify and lay down as just, that conduct which, if not counteracted by the eternal laws of our frame, would lead to such annihilation, if that annihilation itself be not an object of desire), suppose these affections annihilated, and the heart shrinks from the picture. The claims of the helpless infant upon the parent would be rejected; and, if enlarged views of duty to society did not induce the parent to think that he had better remove from existence a being who would be a burden to others and himself, and who probably would not be educated so as to be wise and happy, there would arise constant discouragements which would effectually prevent those steady uniform endeavours to cultivate the mental and moral powers, which are necessary to attain the object; and if the evil did not soon eradicate itself, man, if he existed, would gradually sink to the level of the brute.-But if the parental affections existed not, neither would the filial. Here it is that the rudiments of good will are formed in the infant breast; here it is that the being who is to love all mankind begins his career of love; here is the source of that ardent disinterested benevolence which carries the individual ont of himself, which leads him to forget himself and all his immediate interests, and view only the good of others. Can it be supposed that this highly cultivated benevolence is in opposition to that more confined affection from

which it sprung. No, we see it modifying its direction, but never annihilating it. On the contrary, it may be justly affirmed, that the confined affections become more inwrought in the frame, as universal benevolence become more and more a ruling feature of the mind; and it must, for universal benevolence is but the sum total of all the confined affections, extended by the hand of piety.

88. We have before mentioned, that there are two considerations upon which we ought to act in cases where we are left to be guided by the views of the consequences of our actions, The first is, what would be the consequence if our conduct became general? the next, what is the probability of this extension of our conduct? Whereever the claims of the contined affections are in direct opposition to the dictates of the enlightened conscience, there can be no room for doubt, though we ought to be careful that our departure from their claims not only is, but, if possible, shall appear to be, demanded by these dictates; but we are even in cases which, independently con sidered, are obvious to take into consideration the evil that will result from a breach of those affections. There are some affections which not all the efforts of philosophy could succeed in eradicating; vice may do it and heedless levity, but the calm exertion arising from a view to utility never conld. We refer to the parental affections. Hence it is, probable, that a sacrifice of them to the public good, would be productive of much less injury, than a sacrifice of the filial affections which are less urgent and lasting. Hence, though we should condemn the parent who left his son to perish in the flames, while he endeavoured to save the life of Fenelon, and should require strong proof that the parental affections existed in him, in their due force; yet we should dou❤ bly condemn the son who in such a case left his father to perish.-Godwin's principles, if carried to their fair extent, would destroy society; but we do not consider his errors as more than the errors of judgment. We suppose that the ardour of general benevo lence misled him, and that in his wish to make its dictates paramount in the human breast, he forgot, or rather did not observe, that he was aiming to counteract the most essential laws of the human frame. It is one of those numerous instances in which an acquaintance with the human mind is necessary; had Godwin attended to its laws,

it is reasonable to hope that he never would have given a theory to the world, which, even a slight acquaintance with its practicability and effects, should have consigned to oblivion.

89. Seventhly, benevolent and religions persons have, all other things being equal, a prior claim to the rest of mankind. Natural benevolence itself teaches this as well as the moral sense. Two reasons strongly inforce this; in the first place we thus do what we can towards the promotion of goodness, we add something to the strength of the motives which exist even in the present life, for steady adherence to the practice of virtue. If it be our aim to remove misery without discrimination, we in some degree break down the barriers of virtue; we cannot remove all, therefore, let our efforts be directed so that they shall tell as completely as possible, and it is obvious that this will be most the case where what we do discourages vice in all its shapes. If indolence be secure of relief from that pressure which it places upon itself, indolence will be increased; if the appearance of misery be the only passport to our assist ance, vice will be continually receiving encouragement.-But it is not merely with a view to the relief of actual misery that diserimination is important; it is equally important with respect to the extension of the means of doing good. We may confidently expect all the opportunities and powers we can commit to others will be most serviceable in the hands of those whose habits are formed upon the model of benevolent piety.-In all cases, however, especially while our benevolence is incipient, we are in some measure to be guided by its mere impulse. It is one important consequence of doing good to others, that we do good to ourselves, we cultivate our benevolence, and with it cultivate our happiness. But that benevolence will be found to rest upon the surest footing, which is made to prompt to exertions which shall not interfere with the most extensive interests of man.

90. Eighthly, since the concerns of religion and a future state are of infinitely more importance than those which relate to this world, it should be our most earnest object to contribute, as far as in us lies, to the moral and religious improvement of our fellow-creatures. In various ways we have this power; and this is a field in which all can, more or less, employ their talents. Here no effort can be altogether thrown

away; at least no effort will be prejudicial; and if to others they will be useless, their effects return to our own bosoms.

91. Ninthly, we ought to pay the strictest regard to truth both in our affirmations and promises. There are very few instances where veracity of both kinds is not evidently conducive to the public good, and falsehood in every degree pernicious. It follows, therefore, that, in cases where ap. pearances are otherwise, the general regard to truth, which is of so much consequence to the world, ought to make us adhere in, violably to it; and that it is a most dangerous practice to falsify, as is often done, from false delicacy, or even from those motives which border upon virtue. The harm which these things do, by creating a mutualdiffidence, and tendency to deceive, is itcalculable; and perhaps in no instance to be counterbalanced by the present good effects assigned as the reason for their practice.

92. Tenthly, obedience to the civil magistrate, and to the laws of the community, is a subordinate general rule of the greatest importance.-It is evidently for the public good that every member of a state should submit to the governing power, whatever that be. Peace, order, and harmony result from this in the general; confusion and mischief of all kinds from the contrary. So that, though it may, and must be supposed, that disobedience in certain particular cases will, as far as the single act and its immediate consequences are considered, contribute more to the public good than obedience, yet as it is a dangerous example to others, and will probably lead the person himself into other instances of disobedience afterwards, disobedience becomes, in every case, upon the whole, of a tendency destructive of the public welfare. We ought, therefore, in consequence of this rule, to respect all persons in authority; not to pass hasty censures upon their actions; to make candid allowances on account of the difficulties of government, the bad education of princes, and of persons of high birth, and the flattery and extraordinary temptations with which they are surrounded; to observe the laws ourselves, and to promote the observance of them where the penalties may be evaded, or are found insufficient; to look upon property as a thing absolutely deter mined by the laws, so that, though a man may, and ought to rescind from what the law would give him out of compassion, generosity, love of peace, view of greater good upon

the whole, &c. ; yet he muat never in any way evade, stran, or do violence to the law, in order to obtain what he may think his own according to equity: and whenever he has offended, or is judged by lawini as thority to have offended, he must submit to the punishment, whatever it be

93, Other rules, beside the ten foregoing, might be assigned, and these might be expressed in a different way. I have pot down," says Hartley, those which appear to be in fact the chef principles of social conduct to wise and good men. They must all be supposed to infinence and interpret each other. Let a man only divest himself as much as possible of all selfish regards, and he will generally find some point, and that without much difficulty, or perplexity, in which all these rules unite to produce the greatest good upon the whole, to all persons concerned.

94. Though our plan and limits will not allow of our entering at length into the duties arising from the particular relations of social life, yet we deem the obser vations of Hartley on the subject of the parental relation so important, that we shall make an abstract of his leading statement. The principal duty of the parental relation is, the giving of a right education, or the imprinting such associations on the minds of children, as may conduct them safe through this world, to a happy futurity. In the latter respect there can be no doubt, becanse religion must on all hands be allowed to be the one necessary thing; and, in the course of these investigations respecting the primary pursuit of life, it appears that it contributes as certainly to give us the maximum of happiness in this world, at least the fairest prospect of it, as to secure it in the next: so that a parent ought to inculcate it-in every point of view. The chief errors of education are owing to the want of a practical persuasion of this point; or, to a false tenderness or opinion on the part of a parent, by which he is led to believe that the object does not require, in the case of his child, frequent corrections and restraints, with perpetual encouragements and incentives to virtue by reward, example, advice, books, conversation, &c. When due care is taken from the first, little severity would ordinarily be necessary; but in proportion as this care is neglected in the first years, a much greater degree of care, with high des grees of severity, both bodily and mental, become absolutely necessary to preserve from misery both here and hereafter. Af

fectionate parents should, therefore, labour from the earliest dawnings of understanding and desire, to check the growing obstinacy of the will; to curb all sailies of pasion; to impress the deepest, most antiadie, reve rential, and awful impressions of God, a future state, and all sacred things; to restram anger, jealousy, and serisiness; to encourage love, compassion, generosity, forgiveness, gratitude; to excite, and even oblige, to such industry as the tender age will properly admit. For one principal end and difficulty of me is to generate such moderate, varying, and perpetually actuating motives, by means of the natural sensible desires being associated with, and apportioned to, foreign objects, as may keep up a state of moderate cheerfulness, and asefal employment, during the whole course of our lives: whereas sensual, blind, and quinformed desire, presses violently for immediate gratification, is injurious to others, and destroys its own aims, or, at the best, gives way only to spleen and dissatisfac

tion.

VI.

ESTIMATE OF THE PLEASURES OF
THEOPATHY.

(PHILOSOPHY, mental, § 89—91).

95. We proceed now to the important inquiry respecting the theopathetic affections, what regard they claim from us in our formation of the rule of life. And here it appears that the love of God should be our primary pursuit and ultimate end, because it regulates, improves, and perfects all the other parts of our nature, and affords a pleasure superior in kind and in degree to all the rest.-We have already seen the influence of the precepts of piety on the four inferior classes of human pleasures, those of sensa tion, imagination, ambition, and self-interest; but the precepts of piety are those which teach us what homage of our affections and external actions ought to be addressed to the Deity in a direct and immediate manner. Now all the affections enjoined by those precepts, terminate ultimately in the love of God, which therefore may be used in the same situations in which the term precepts of piety has been employed.-But in addition to this, it is obvious in a shorter way. The perpetual exertions of a pleasing affection towards a being who is infipite in power, knowledge, and goodness, and who is also our friend and father, cannot but enhance all our joys, and alleviate all our sorrows; a sense of his presence and protec

Fion will restrain all actions which are excessive, irregular, or hurtful; will support and encourage us in all such as are of a contrary nature; and will infuse such peace and tranquillity of mind as will enable us to see clearly, and act uniformly. The perfection therefore of every part of our natures must depend upon the perfection in which the love of God, and a constant sense of his presence, have obtained possession of the mind.

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96. With respect to the support and regulation afforded by piety to benevolence, it may be observed, that the love of our fellow men can never be free from personality and selfishness, until we are able to view all things in the relation which they bear to God. If the relation to ourselves be made the point of view, our prospects must be narrow, and the appearance of what we do see, distorted. When we consider the scenes of vanity, folly, and misery, which present themselves to our view from this point; when we are disappointed in the happiness of our friends, or feel the resentment of our enemies, our benevolence will begin to languish, and our hearts to fail us; we shall complain of the corruption and wickedness of that world which we have hitherto loved, with a benevolence merely human, and shew by our complaints that we are strongly tinctured with the same corruption and wickedness. This is generally the case with young and unexperienced persons in the beginning of a virtuous course, and be fore they have made advances in piety.---The disappointments which human benevolence meets with, are sometimes apt to incline us to call the divine goodness in question. But he who is possessed of a full assurance of this, who loves God with his whole powers, as an inexhaustible fountain of love and benevolence to his creatures, at all times and under all circumstances, as much when he chastises as when he rewards, will learn thereby to love enemies as well as friends, the sinful and miserable as well as the holy and happy; to rejoice and give thanks for every thing he sees and feels, however irreconcilable to his present suggestions; and to labour as an instrument under God, with real courage and consistency, for the promotion of virtue and happiness.

97. In like manner the conscience or moral sense requires a perpetual direction and support from the love of God to keep it steady and pure. When God is made only a subordinate end, or is shut out from the mind, men are very apt to relapse into

negligence and callosity, and to act without any virtuous principle. And, on the other hand, if they regard him with slavish fear, they fill their minds with endless scruples

and anxieties about the lawfulness of trivial actions. Thus it regulates, improves, and perfects all the other parts of our nature; but further, it affords a pleasure superior in kind, and in degree, to all the rest of which our nature are capable.

98. First, the love and contemplation of God in some measure renders us partakers of the divine nature, and consequently of the perfection and happiness of it. Our wills may thus be united to his will, and therefore rendered free from disappointment; we shall by degrees see every thing as God sees it, that is, see every thing which he has made to be good. Though this can only be the case in part in the present world, yet it is well known that there have been those who have so far reached this perfection of our nature, as to acquiesce, and even to rejoice in the events of life, however apparently afflicting; to be freed from fear and solicitude; and to receive their daily bread with constant thankfulness. And though the number of these happy persons has been comparatively small, and the path be not frequented and beaten, yet if the desire be sufficiently earnest, it is in the power of all to arrive at the same state.

99. Secondly, the love of God may be considered as the central affection to which all the others point. When men have entered sufficiently into the ways of piety, the ideas of the Supreme Being recur more and more in the whole course and tenor of their lives, and, by uniting with all their sensations and intellectual feelings, overpower all the pains, and augment and connect with themselves all the pleasures. Every thing beautiful and glorious brings in the ideas of God, mixes with them, and coalesces with them; for all things are from God, he is the only cause and reality, and the existence of every thing else is only the effect and proof of his existence and excellence. Let the mind be once duly imbued with this truth, and its practical applications, and every thing will afford exercise for the devout affections. Add to their unlimited extent, their purity, and perfection, and it cannot but be acknowledged that they must be far superior to the rest both in kind and in degree.

100. Thirdly, the objects of other pleasures are frequently removed. No time,

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no place, no circumstance of life can deprive us of this. Our hearts may be directed to wards God in the greatest external confu sion, as well as in the deepest silence and retirement. All the duties of life, when directed to God, become pleasures, and by the same means every the smallest action becomes the discharge of the proper duty of time and place. Thus time is turned to its best advantage: thus every situation of life may be converted into present comfort and future felicity.

101. Fourthly, when the love of God is thus made to arise from every object, and to exert itself in every action, it becomes of a permanent nature, and will not pass into deadness or disgust, as those other pleasures do from repeated gratification.

102. We should be glad if our limits would allow of our laying before our readers a view of those means which are pointed out by Hartley, for the culture of the theo. pathetic affections, of faith, fear, gratitude, hope, trust, resignation, and love: we must, however, content ourselves with referring to his 72d proposition on this point, and to his important rules in the 73d proposition, concerning the manner of expressing them in prayer, and other religious exercises; concluding this head with the following observations from the latter. There cannot be a more fatal delusion, than to suppose that religion is nothing but a divine philosophy in the soul; and that the foregoing theopathetic affections may exist and flourish there, though they be not cultivated by devont exercises and expressions. Experience, and many plain obvious reasons, shew the falsehood and mischievous tendency of this notion; and it follows from the theory of association, that no internal dispositions can remain long in the mind, unless they be properly nourished by proper associations, that is, by some external acts. This therefore, among others, may be considered as a strong argument for frequent prayer.

and this for several reasons. First, because it offers itself at the various occasions of life, with consistency, and generally with certainty. It warns us beforehand, and calls us to account afterward; it condemns or approves; it rewards by the pleasures of self-approbation, or punishes by the pains of self-condemnation. Secondly, the moral sense is principally generated by piety, benevolence, and rational self-interest. All these are explicit guides in deliberate actions; and since they are excluded, on sudden occasions, through the want of time to weigh and determine, it is highly reasonable to admit the moral sense formed from them, and whose dictates are immediate, as their substitute.-Thirdly, the greatness, the importance, and the calm nature, of the pleasures of the moral sense, with the horrors and the constant recurrence of the sense of guilt, are additional arguments to shew that these pleasures and pains were intended as the guides of life.

104. The perfection of the moral sense consists in the four following particulars ; that it extend to all the actions of moment which occur in the intercourses of real life, and be a ready monitor on all such occasions: that its pleasures and pains should be so vivid as to furnish a very strong excite. ment to shun the path of vice, and to walk steadily in the way of religion: that it should not descend to trifling or minute particulars; for, though scrupulosity is probably a necessary step in the progress of mind to moral excellency, yet, if it continue and become the prevailing habit of the mind, it will check benevolence, and turn the love of God into a superstitious fear: lastly, it is necessary that the pleasures and pains of the moral sense should be perfectly conformable to the dictates of piety and benevolence, of which it may be considered as the substitute.

105. In order to obtain the most perfect state of the conscience, it is necessary for us to be much employed in the practical

ȚII. ESTIMATE OF THE PLEASURES OF THE study of the sacred writings, and of the

MORAL SENSE.

(PHILOSOPHY, mental, § 92–99.) 103. It has already been stated, that the moral sense ought to have great influence even in the most explicit and deliberate actions; hence the culture of its pleasures, and the correcting of its dictates, should be made a primary object of pursuit. Further, the moral sense, on urgent occasions, ought to have the sole influence:

good of all denominations; in observing the living examples of goodness, and in the perusal of christian biography; in self-examination, and in the culture of the sympathetic and theopathetic affections; and in aiming to follow with faithfulness the dictates of piety, benevolence, and the moral sense, such as they are at present.

106. The moral sense may be, and often is, misled by education; the dictates of this feeling, therefore, are not a perfect

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