་ not be fuppofed to want that which he communicated, without diminishing from the plenitude of his own power and happiness. The philofophers before mentioned have indeed done all that in them lay to invalidate this argument; for placing the gods in a state of the moft elevated bleffednefs, they defcribe them as felfish as we poor miferable mortals can be, and fhut them out from all concern for mankind, upon the fcore of their having no need of us. But if he that fitteth in the heavens wants not us, we stand in continual need of him; and, furely, next to the furvey of the immenfe treasures of his own mind, the moft exalted pleasure he receives is from beholding millions of creatures lately drawn out of the gulf of nonexistence, rejoicing in the various degrees of being and happiness imparted to them. And as this is the true, the glorious character of the Deity; fo, in forming a reasonable creature, he would not, if poffible, fuffer his image to pafs out of his hands unadorned with a refemblance of himself in this moft lovely part of his nature. For what complacency could a mind, whofe love is as unbounded as his knowledge, have in a work fo unlike himself; a creature that should be capable of knowing and converfing with a vast circle of objects, and love none but himself? What proportion would there be between the head and the heart of fuch a creature, its affections, and its underftanding? Or could a fociety of such creatures, with no other bottom but felf-love on which to maintain a commerce, ever flourish? Reason, it is certain, would oblige every man to purfue the general Happinefs, as the means to procure and establish his own; and yet if, befides this confideration, there were not a natural instinct, prompting men to defire the welfare and fatisfaction of others, felf-love, in defiance of the admonitions of reafon, would quickly run all things into a state of war and confufion. As nearly interested as the soul is in the fate of the body, our provident Creator faw it neceffary, by the conftant returns of hunger and thirst, thofe importunate appetites, to put it in mind of its charge; knowing, that if we should eat and drink no oftener than cold abftracted fpeculation fhould put us upon thefe exercifes, and then leave it to reafon to prefcribe the quantity, we should foon refine ourselves out of this bodily life. And, indeed, it it is obvious to remark, that we follow nothing heartily, unless carried to it by inclinations which anticipate our reafon, and, like a bias, draw the mind ftrongly towards it. In order therefore to establish a perpetual intercourfe of benefits among mankind their Maker would not fail to give them this generous prepoffeffion of benevolence, if, as I have faid, it were poffible. And from whence Is it inconcan we go about to argue its impoffibility? fiftent with felf-love? Are their motions contrary? No more than the diurnal rotation of the earth is opposed to its annual; or its motion round its own centre, which may be improved as an illuftration of felf-love, to that which whirls it about the common centre of the world; anfwering to univerfal benevolence. Is the force of selflove abated, or its intereft prejudiced by benevolence? So far from it, that benevolence, though a diftinct principle, is extremely ferviceable to felf-love, and then doth most service when it is least designed. Bur to defcend from reafon to matter of fact; the pity which arifes on fight of perfons in diftrefs, and the fatisfaction of mind, which is the confequence of having removed them into a happier state, are instead of a thoufand arguments to prove fuch a thing as a difinterested benevolence. Did pity proceed from a reflection we make upon our liablenefs to the fame ill accidents we fee befal others, it were nothing to the prefent purpofe; but this is affigning an artificial cause of a natural paffion, and can by no means be admitted as a tolerable account of it, because children, and perfons moft thoughtless about their own condition, and incapable of entering into the profpects of futurity, feel the most violent touches of compaffion. And then as to that charming delight which immediately follows the giving joy to another, or relieving his forrow, and is, when the objects are numerous, and the kindness of importance, really inexpreffible, what can this be owing to but confcioufnefs of a man's having done fomething praife-worthy, and expreffive of a great foul? Whereas, if in all this he only facrificed to vanity and felf-love, as there would be nothing brave in actions that make the most shining appearance, fo nature would not have rewarded them with this divine pleasure; nor could the commendations, which a perfon receives for for benefits done upon felfish views, be at all more fatiffactory, than when he is applauded for what he doth without defign; becaufe in both cafes the ends of felf love are equally anfwered. The conscience of approving one's felf a benefactor to mankind, is the nobleft recompence for being fo: doubtless it is, and the most interested cannot propofe any thing so much to their own advantage; notwithstanding which, the inclination is nevertheless unfelfish. The pleasure which attends the gratification of our hunger and thirft, is not the caufe of thefe appetites; they are previous to any fuch profpect; and fo likewife is the defire of doing good; with this difference, that being feated in the intellectual part, this laft, though antecedent to reafon, may yet be improved and regulated by it, and, I will add, is no otherwife a virtue than as it is fo. THUS have I contended for the dignity of that nature I have the honour to partake of, and, after all the evidence produced, think I have a right to conclude, against the motto of this paper, that there is fuch a thing as generofity in the world. Though if I were under a mistake in this, I fhould fay, as Cicero in relation to the immortality of the foul, I willingly err, and fhould believe it very much for the intereft of mankind to lie under the fame delufion. For the contrary notion naturally tends to difpirit the mind, and finks it into a meannefs fatal to the God-like zeal of doing good: as, on the other hand, it teaches people to be ungrateful, by poffeffing them with a perfuafion concerning their benefactors, that they have no regard to them in the benefits they beftow. Now he that banishes gratitude from among men, by fo doing stops up the ftream of beneficence. For though in conferring kindneffes, a truly generous man doth not aim at a return, yet he looks to the qualities of the perfon obliged, and as nothing renders a perfon more unworthy of a benefit, than his being without all refentment of it, he will not be extremely forward to oblige fuch a man. VOL. VIII. NO N° 589. Friday, September 3. Perfequitur fcelus ille fuum: labefactaque tandem Ovid. Met. 1. 8. v. 774. The impious axe he plies: loud ftrokes refound "Till dragg'd with ropes, and fell'd with many a wound, The loofen'd tree comes rufhing to the ground. SIR, AM fo great an admirer of trees, that the fpot of Iground I have chofen to build a fmall feat upon, in I the country, is almoft in the midst of a large wood. was obliged, much against my will, to cut down feveral trees, that I might have any fuch thing as a walk in my gardens; but then I have taken care to leave the space, between every walk, as much a wood as I found it. The moment you turn either to the right or left, you are in a foreft, where nature prefents you with a much more beautiful scene than could have been raised by art. INSTEAD of tulips or carnations, I can fhew you oaks in my gardens of four hundred years standing, and a knot of elms that might shelter a troop of horse from the rain. 'IT is not without the utmost indignation, that I observe feveral prodigal young heirs in the neighbourhood, felling down the most glorious monuments of their ancestors induftry, and ruining, in a day, the product of ages. I AM mightily pleafed with your difcourfe upon planting, which put me upon looking into my books to give " you fome account of the veneration the ancients had for There is an old tradition, that Abraham planted a cyprefs, a pine, and a cedar, and that these three incorporated into one tree, which was cut down for the building of the temple of Solomon. ❝ trees. ISIDORUS, who lived in the reign of Conftantius, affures us, that he faw, even in his time, that famous • oak oak in the plains of Mamre, under which Abraham is ⚫ reported to have dwelt, and adds, that the people look'ed upon it with a great veneration, and preferved it as a • facred tree. THE Heathens ftill went further, and regarded it as the highest piece of facrilege to injure certain trees which they took to be protected by fome deity. The ftory of Erifthon, the grove of Dodona, and that at Delphi, are all inftances of this kind. IF we confider the machine in Virgil, fo much blamed by feveral critics, in this light, we fhall hardly think it too violent. ENE AS, when he built his fleet in order to fail for Italy, was obliged to cut down the grove on mount Ida, which however he durft not do till he had obtained leave from Cybele, to whom it was dedicated. The goddefs could not but think herself obliged to protect these fhips, which were made of confecrated timber, after a very extraordinary manner, and therefore defired Jupiter, that they might not be obnoxious to the power ⚫ of waves or winds. Jupiter would not grant this, but promifed her, that as many as came fafe to Italy, should be transformed into goddeffes of the fea; which the poet tells us was accordingly executed. ་ ་ And now at length the number'd hours were come, When the great mother of the gods was free Then from a cloud, fring'd round with golden fires, L 2 Exalted |