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PART in the eye of the great Judge of the world, III. have more merit than a whole life fpent honourably in the latter, is furely contrary to all our moral fentiments: to all the principles by which nature has taught us to regulate our contempt or admiration. It is this fpirit, however, which, while it has referved the celestial regions for monks and friars, or for those whofe conduct and converfation refembled those of monks and friars, has condemned to the infernal all the heroes, all the statesmen and lawgivers, all the poets and philofophers of former ages; all those who have invented, improved, or excelled in the arts, which contribute to the fubfiftence, to the conveniency, or to the ornament of human life; all the great protectors, inftruc tors, and benefactors of mankind; all thofe to whom our natural fenfe of praife-worthiness forces us to afcribe the highest merit and moft exalted virtue. Can we wonder that fo ftrange an application of this most respectable doctrine should fometimes have expofed it to contémpt and derifion; with those at least who had themselves, perhaps, no great tafte or turn for the devout and contemplative virtues *?

*See Voltaire.

Vous y grillez fage et docte Platon,
Divin Homere, eloquent Ciceron, &c.

CHAP.

CHAP. III.

Of the Influence and Authority of Confcience.

BUT though the approbation of his own con- CHAP.

fcience can scarce, upon fome extraordinary occafions, content the weakness of man; though the teftimony of the fuppofed impartial spectator of the great inmate of the breaft, cannot always alone fupport him; yet the influence and authority of this principle is, upon all occafions, very great; and it is only by confulting this judge within, that we can ever fee what relates to ourfelves in its proper fhape and dimenfions; or that we can ever make any proper comparifon between our own interefts and thofe of other people.

As to the eye of the body, objects appear great or fmall, not fo much according to their real dimenfions, as according to the nearness or distance of their fituation; fo do they likewife to what may be called the natural eye of the mind and we remedy the defects of both these organs pretty much in the fame manner. In my prefent fituation an immenfe landfcape of lawns, and woods, and distant mountains, feems to do no more than cover the little window which I write by, and to be out of all proportion less than the chamber in which I am fitting. I can form a juft comparison between those great objects and the little objects around me, in no other

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III.

III.

PART way, than by transporting myself, at least in fancy, to a different ftation, from whence I can furvey both at nearly equal distances, and thereby form fome judgment of their real proportions. Habit and experience have taught me to do this fo eafily and fo readily, that I am scarce fenfible that I do it; and a man must be, in some meafure, acquainted with the philofophy of vifion, before he can be thoroughly convinced, how little thofe diftant objects would appear to the eye, if the imagination, from a knowledge of their real magnitudes, did not fwell and dilate them.

In the fame manner, to the selfish and original paffions of human nature, the lofs or gain of a very small intereft of our own, appears to be of vaftly more importance, excites a much more paffionate joy or forrow, a much more ardent defire or averfion, than the greateft concern of another with whom we have no particular connexion. His interefts, as long as they are furveyed from this ftation, can never be put into the balance with our own, can never restrain us from doing whatever may tend to promote our own, how ruinous fo ever to him. Before we can make any proper comparison of those oppofite interefts, we muft change our pofition. We must view them, neither from our own place nor yet from his, neither with our own eyes nor yet with his, but from the place and with the eyes of a third perfon, who has no particular connexion with either, and who judges with impartiality between us. Here, too, habit and experience have taught us to do this fo

III.

eafily and fo readily, that we are fcarce fenfible c HAP. that we do it; and it requires, in this cafe too, fome degree of reflection, and even of philofophy, to convince us, how little interest we fhould take in the greatest concerns of our neighbour, how little we should be affected by whatever relates to him, if the fense of propriety and juftice did not correct the otherwise natural inequality of our fentiments.

Let us fuppofe that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was fuddenly fwallowed up by an earthquake, and let us confider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no fort of connexion with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, exprefs very strongly his forrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precarioufnefs of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reafonings concerning the effects which this difafter might produce upon the commerce of Europe, and the trade and bufinefs of the world in general. And when all this fine philofophy was over, when all thefe humane fentiments had been once fairly expreffed, he would purfue his bufinefs or his plea fure, take his repofe or his diverfion, with the fame ease and tranquillity, as if no fuch accident had happened. The moft frivolous difafter which

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III.

PART which could befal himfelf would occafion a more real disturbance. If he was to lofe his little finger to-morrow, he would not fleep to-night; but, provided he never faw them, he will fnore with the most profound fecurity over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the deftruction of that immenfe multitude feems plainly an object lefs interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own.. To prevent, therefore, this paltry misfortune to himself, would a man of humanity be willing to facrifice the lives of a hundred millions of his brethren, provided he had never feen them? Human nature startles with horror at the thought, and the world, in its greatest depravity and corruption, never produced fuch a villain as could be capable of entertaining it. But what makes this difference? When our paffive feelings are almoft always fo fordid and fo felfifh, how comes it that our active principles fhould often be fo generous and fo noble? When we are always fo much more deeply affected by whatever concerns ourfelves, than by whatever concerns other men ; what is it which prompts the generous, upon all occafions, and the mean upon many, to facrifice their own interefts to the greater interefts of others? It is not the foft power of humanity, it is not that feeble fpark of benevolence which Nature has lighted up in the human heart, that is thus capable of counteracting the ftrongest impulfes of felf-love. It is a ftronger power, a more forcible motive, which exerts itself upon fuch occafions. It is reafon, principle, con.

fcience,

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