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17. Selfishness.-The selfish look upon themselves, as if they were all the world, and no man beside concerned therein; that the good state of things is to be measured by their condition, that all is well if they do prosper and thrive; all is ill, if they be disappointed in their desires and projects. The good of no man, not of their brethren, not of their friends, not of their country, doth come under their consideration.

This is the chief spring of injustice, for from hence it is, that oftentimes men regard not what courses they take, what means they use (how unjust, how base soever they be) toward the compassing of their designs: hence, they trample upon right, they violate all laws and rules of conscience, they falsify their trusts, they betray their friends, they supplant their neighbour, they flatter and colleague, they wind about and shuffle any way, they detract from the worth and virtue of any man, they forge and vent odious slanders, they commit any sort of wrong and outrage, they (without regard or remorse) do any thing which seemeth to further their design.

Selfishness therefore is the great enemy to the commonweal, that which perverteth all right, which confoundeth all order, which spoileth all the convenience and comfort of society.

The frame of our nature speaketh, that we are not born for ourselves alone. We shall find man, if we contemplate him, to be a nobler thing than to have been designed merely to serve himself, and to satisfy his single pleasure; his endowments are too excellent, his capacities too large for so mean and narrow purposes. How pitiful a creature were man, if this were all he were made for, how sorry a faculty were reason, if it served not to better uses. He debaseth himself, he disgraceth his nature, who hath so low conceits, and pursueth so petty designs.

Nay, even a true regard to our own private good will engage us not inordinately to pursue self-interest. As we are all born members of the world, as we are compacted into a commonwealth, as we are incorporated into any society, as we partake in any conversation or company, so by mutual support, aid, defence, comfort, not only the common welfare first, but our particular benefit consequently doth subsist. On the contrary, our thriving by the common prejudice, will in the end turn to our own loss."-Barrow.

18.

Talents and Genius.-Who in the same given time can produce more than many others has vigour; who can produce more and better, has talents; who can produce what none else can, has genius. Lavater's Aphorisms.

19. Industry. If industry is no more than habit, 'tis at least an excellent one. "If you ask me which is the real hereditary sin of human nature, do you imagine I shall answer pride, or luxury, or ambition, or egotism? No; I shall say indolence. Who conquers indolence will conquer all the rest." Indeed all good principles must stagnate without mental activity.-Zimmerman.

20. The King of Prussia's Thoughts on Hunting.-His Majesty's idea of hunting is strongly characteristic of a noble and feeling mind. "The chace," says he, "is one of the most sensual of pleasures, by which the powers of the body are strongly exerted, but those of the mind remain unemployed. It consists in a violent exertion of desire in the pursuit, and the indulgence of a cruel passion in the death of the game. It is an exercise which makes the limbs strong, active, and pliable: but leaves the head without improvement. I am convinced that man is more cruel and savage than any beast of prey. We exercise the dominion given us over these our wretched fellow-creatures, in the most tyrannical manner. If we pretend to any superiority over the beasts, it ought certainly to consist in reason. But we commonly find, that the most passionate lovers of the chace renounce this privilege, and converse only with their dogs, their horses and other irrational animals. This renders them wild and unfeeling; and it is highly probable they cannot be merciful to the human species; for a man who can, in cold blood torture a poor innocent animal, cannot feel much compassion for the distresses of his own species: and besides, can the chace be a proper employment for a thinking mind?

21. Experience. By what strange fatality is it, that having examples before our eyes, we do not profit by them? Why is our experience, with regard to the misfortunes of others, of so little use? In a word, why is it, that we are to learn wisdom and prudence at our own expense? Yet such is the fate of man! Surrounded by misfortunes, we are supplied with means to escape them; but blinded by caprice, prejudice, and pride, we neglect the proffered aid, and it is only by the tears we shed, in consequence of our own errors, that we learn to detest them.-Maxims and Observations.

22. Self-Will.-Men who are self-willed, are in their demeanour perverse and froward, stiff and stubborn, with much inconvenience to others, and commonly with more to themselves. It must be just as they will have it; what, if ten to one think otherwise; what, if generally, the wisest men are agreed to the contrary; what, if the most pressing necessity of affairs do not admit it; what, if public authority does not allow it; yet so it must be, because they fancy it, otherwise they will not be quiet; so do they sacrifice the greatest benefits of society, public order and peace, mutual love and friendship, common safety and prosperity, to their private will and humour.-Barrow.

23. Character. Can those have any character to lose who have no reputation to gain?-Zimmerman.

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24. Conscience.-The character of a man's opinions seems to be, as Dr. Watson says, generally determined by the strength and activity of his understanding, by his peculiar temperament, by the objects he becomes familiar with, by the sort of entertainment he gives them, and by a variety of other circumstances that influence him throughout life; and this alone will explain how it comes to pass, that the very same action which is esteemed virtue in one country, is sometimes considered to be actually vice in another. Moreover, as our opinions change upon moral matters, so does our conscience effect a suitable change in our conduct. It often happens, for instance, that he who has long indulged himself without scruple in the enjoyment of many worldly pleasures, is brought either by the experience of their vanity, or by misfortune, or by the persuasions of others, to believe them criminal, and consequently to abandon them more or less abruptly and strictly. Courtiers have thus voluntarily quitted the brilliant saloons of Versailles, in order to entomb themselves within the gloomy walls of La Trappe. Prejudice and superstition strangely warp the human mind, and seemingly there is no absurdity man is not capable of practising from conscientious motives. Some men continually torment themselves, and some as continually torment others, in the very monstrous belief of its proving acceptable to the Father of all Mercies. But though reason is, as experience assures us, apt to be biassed in such a vast variety of ways, in its determination of what is morally right, yet is it in every man, from his childhood, fitted to apprise him, that it is his duty to act according to his sense of right, whatever it may be, and this sense of right is what we call Conscience,

25. Self-Knowledge. To know one's self, one would think, could be no very difficult lesson;-for, who, you will say, can be truly ignorant of himself and the true disposition of his own heart? If a man thinks at all, he cannot be a stranger to what passes there;-he must be conscious of his own thoughts snd desires, he must remember his past pursuits, aud the true springs and motives which in general have directed the actions of his life: he may hang out false colours and deceive the world; but how can a man NEW SERIES.

deceive himself? That a man can is evident, because he daily does so. Though man is the only creature endowed with reflection, and consequently qualified to know the most of himself, yet so it happens, that he generally knows the least. Of all the many revengeful, covetous, false, and ill-natured, persons which we complain of in the world, though we all join in the cry against them, what man amongst us singles out himself as a criminal, or ever once takes it into his head that he adds to the number? What other man speaks so often and so vehemently against the vice of pride, sets the weakness of it in a more odious light, or is more hurt with it in another, than the proud man himself? It is the same with the passionate, the designing, the ambitious, and some other common characters in life. Most of us are aware of, and pretend to detest, the bare-faced instances of that hypocrisy by which men deceive others; but few of us are upon our guard, or see that more fatal hypocrisy by which we deceive and over-reach our own hearts. Maxims and Observations.

26. Anecdotes of Pigalle.-Pigalle, the celebrated artist, who had laid by twelve louis d'ors for his journey from Lyons to Paris, seeing one day a man, who was walking with visible marks of deep-felt sorrow in his countenance, boldly accosted him, and asked him, if he could any way relieve him.—“ Ah, Sir !" exclaimed the stranger, “for want of ten louis, I must be dragged this evening to a dungeon, and be separated from a tender wife and numerous family."—"Is that all ?" replied the humane artist: “Come along with me; I have twelve of them in my trunk, and they are all at your service." A friend, who met him by chance next day, asked him wether he had relieved the distresses of a poor man, as was publickly reported at Lyons. “Ah, mon ami!" said Pigalle, "what a delicious supper did I make last night, upon bread and cheese, with a family who blessed me at every mouthful they ate, which was moistened with the tears of gratitude.”

Elegant Anecdotes.

27 Names.-All names being imposed to signify our conceptions, and all our affections being but conceptions, when we conceive the same things differently, we can hardly avoid different meanings of them. Since, though the nature of what we conceive be the same, yet the diversity of our reception of it, in respect of different constitutions of body, and prejudices of opinion, gives every thing a tincture of our different passions, and therefore in reasoning, a man must take heed of words, which, besides their proper signification, have a signification also of the character, disposition, and interest of the speaker, such as are the names of Virtues and Vices; for one man calleth wisdom, what another calleth fear; and one cruelty, what another justice; one prodigality, what another munificence, magnanimity, &c.

Hobbes.

28. Favours.-Though a favour does, or does not, deserve to be returned, the manner in which it was granted deserves to be remembered. Zimmerman

29. Force of Habit.-Habit hath so vast a prevalence over the human mind, that there is scarcely any thing too strange or too strong to be asserted of it. The story of the miser, who, from long accustoming to cheat others, came at last to cheat himself, and with great delight and triumph picked his own pocket of a guinea to convey to his hoard, is not impossible or improbable. In like manner it fares with the practicers of deceit, who from having long deceived their acquaintance, gain at last a power of deceiving themselves, and acquire that very opinion (however false) of their own abilities, excellences, and virtues, into which they have for years, perhaps, endeavoured to betray their neighbours.-Maxims and Observations.

30. Real Existence.-If any one will be so sceptical as to distrust his senses, and to affirm, that all we see and hear, feel and taste, think and do, during our whole being, is but the series and deluding appearances of a long dream; and therefore will question all things, or our knowledge of any thing, I must desire him to consider, that if all be a dream, then he doth but dream that he makes the question, and so it is not much matter, that a waking man should answer him; however if he please, he may dream that I make him this answer, that the certainty of things existing in rerum naturâ, when we have the testimony of our senses for it, is not only as great as our frame can attain to, but as our condition needs, and no mau requires greater certainty to govern his actions by, than what is as certain as his actions themselves. And if our dreamer likes to try whether the glowing heat of a glass furnace be barely a wandering imagination in a drowsy man's fancy, he may by putting his hand into it, perhaps be awakened into a greater certainty than he could wish. He most assuredly never could be put into such exquisite pain by a bare idea, or phantoin, unless that the pain be a fancy too, but this pain he cannot, when the burn is well, bring upon himself again by the mere force of imagination. So that this evidence is as strong as we can desire, being as certain to us as our pleasure or pain, i. e. happiness or misery, beyond which we have no concernment either of knowing or being-Locke.

31. The fashionable require very little from those they associate with, besides their purse, praise, time, and chastity.-Zimmerman.

32. Anecdote of a Chinese Emperor.-Vouti, Emperor of China, was passionately fond of the occult sciences. An imposter, availed himself of this foible, brought him an elixir, exhorting him to drink it, and assuring him that it would render him immortal. One of his Ministers, who was present, having in vain attempted to undeceive him, hastily snatched the cup, and drank the liquor. The Emperor, enraged at this insult, ordered the Mandarin to be put to death. The honest Minister, not in the least disconcerted, said to him, If the elixir bestows immortality, all your efforts to put me to death will be useless; and if it does not, surely you will not be guilty of such an act of injustice for so insignificant a theft."-This speech pacified the Emperor, who afterwards highly commended him for his fortitude in the cause of truth, in opposition to imposture.-Elegant Anecdotes.

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