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III.

PART the approach of danger. Whether fuch weak. nefs of nerves, as it has been called, may not, by gradual exercife and proper difcipline, admit of fome cure, may, perhaps, be doubtful. It feems certain that it ought never to be trufted or employed.

CHAP.

IV.

CHAP. IV.

Of the Nature of Self-deceit, and of the Origin and Ufe of general Rules.

IN order to pervert the rectitude of our own judgments concerning the propriety of our own conduct, it is not always neceffary that the real and impartial fpectator fhould be at a great distance. When he is at hand, when he is prefent, the violence and injuftice of our own felfish paffions are fometimes fufficient to induce the man within the breast to make a report very different from what the real circumstances of the cafe are capable of authorifing.

There are two different occafions upon which we examine our own conduct, and endeavour to view it in the light in which the impartial fpectator would view it: first, when we are about to act; and fecondly, after we have acted. Our views are apt to be very partial in both cafes; but they are apt to be most partial when it is of most importance that they should be otherwise.

When

IV.

When we are about to act, the eagerness of C HA P. paffion will feldom allow us to confider what we are doing, with the candour of an indifferent perfon. The violent emotions which at that time agitate us, difcolour our views of things, even when we are endeavouring to place ourfelves in the fituation of another, and to regard the objects that interest us in the light in which they will naturally appear to him. The fury of our own paffions conftantly calls us back to our own place, where every thing appears magnified and mifreprefented by felf-love. Of the manner in which thofe objects would appear to another, of the view which he would take of them, we can obtain, if I may fay fo, but inftantaneous glimpfes, which vanish in a moment, and which, even while they laft, are not altogether juft. We cannot even for that moment diveft ourselves entirely of the heat and keennefs with which our peculiar fituation inspires us, nor confider what we are about to do with the complete impartiality of an equitable judge. The paffions, upon this account, as Father Malebranche fays, all juftify themselves, and feem reasonable and proportioned to their objects, as long as we continue to feel them.

When the action is over, indeed, and the paffions which prompted it have fubfided, we can enter more coolly into the fentiments of the indifferent spectator. What before interested us is now become almoft as indifferent to us as it always was to him, and we can now examine our own conduct with his candour and impartiality.

I

III.

PART tiality. The man of to-day is no longer agitated by the fame paffions which diftracted the man of yesterday: and when the paroxyfm of emotion, in the fame manner as when the paroxyfm of diftrefs, is fairly over, we can identify ourfelves, as it were, with the ideal man within the breaft, and, in our own character, view, as in the one cafe, our own fituation, fo in the other, our own conduct, with the fevere eyes of the most impartial fpectator. But our judg ments now are often of little importance in comparison of what they were before; and can frequently produce nothing but vain regret and unavailing repentance; without always fecuring us from the like errors in time to come. It is feldom, however, that they are quite candid even in this cafe. The opinion which we entertain of our own character depends entirely on our judgment concerning our paft conduct. It is fo difagreeable to think ill of ourselves, that we often purpofely turn away our view from thofe circumstances which might render that judgment unfavourable. He is a bold furgeon, they fay, whofe hand does not tremble when he performs an operation upon his own perfon; and he is often equally bold who does not hesitate to pull off the myfterious veil of felf-delufion, which covers from his view the deformities of his own conduct. Rather than fee our own behaviour under fo difagreeable an afpect, we too often, foolishly and weakly, endeavour to exafperate anew those unjuft paffions which had formerly mifled us; we endeavour

by

IV.

by artifice to awaken our old hatreds, and irri- C HA P. tate afresh our almoft forgotten refentments: we even exert ourselves for this miferable purpofe, and thus perfevere in injustice, merely because we once were unjuft, and because we are ashamed and afraid to fee that we were fo.

So partial are the views of mankind with regard to the propriety of their own conduct, both at the time of action and after it; and fo difficult is it for them to view it in the light in which any indifferent fpectator would confider it. But if it was by a peculiar faculty, fuch as the moral fenfe is fuppofed to be, that they judged of their own conduct, if they were endued with a particular power of perception, which diftinguished the beauty or deformity of paffions and affections; as their own paffions would be more immediately exposed to the view of this faculty, it would judge with more accuracy concerning them, than concerning those of other men, of which it had only a more diftant profpect.

This felf-deceit, this fatal weakness of mankind, is the fource of half the diforders of human life. If we faw ourselves in the light in which others fee us, or in which they would fee us if they knew all, a reformation would generally be unavoidable. We could not otherwife endure the fight.

Nature, however, has not left this weakness, which is of fo much importance, altogether without a remedy; nor has the abandoned us entirely to the delufions of felf-love. Our con

III.

PART tinual obfervations upon the conduct of others, infenfibly lead us to form to ourselves certain general rules concerning what is fit and proper either to be done or to be avoided. Some of their actions fhock all our natural fentiments. We hear every body about us exprefs the like deteftation against them. This ftill further confirms, and even exafperates our natural fenfe of their deformity. It fatisfies us that we view them in the proper light, when we fee other people view them in the fame light. We refolve never to be guilty of the like, nor ever, upon any account, to render ourselves in this manner the objects of universal disapprobation. We thus naturally lay down to ourselves a general rule, that all fuch actions are to be avoided, as tending to render us odious, contemptible, or punishable, the objects of all thofe fentiments for which we have the greateft dread and averfion. Other actions, on the contrary, call forth our approbation, and we hear every body around us exprefs the fame favourable opinion concerning them. Every body is eager to honour and reward them. They excite all those sentiments for which we have by nature the strongest defire; the love, the gratitude, the admiration of mankind. We become ambitious of performing the like; and thus naturally lay down to ourselves a rule of another kind, that every opportunity of acting in this manner is carefully to be fought after.

It is thus that the general rules of morality are formed. They are ultimately founded

upon

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