manner of its affecting ourselves. To a reasonable being nothing brings pain but vice, or pleasure but virtue. This precaution must tend to promote benevolence, friendship, and honesty among mankind; whereas the not observing it subjects us to the tyranny of our passions, to gratify which men frequently become faithless, cruel, dishonest, and traiterous. We are convinced that men must live in societies; and, in order to live happy, it is evident they must be virtuous, since nothing else in our power can mutually secure us; human beings are so circumstanced, that they should love, assist, and protect each other. The great end of our being is happiness; it cannot be supposed, that the Omnipotent Author of nature intended any being should inevitably be miserable. Human happiness is always proportionate to the perception we have of ideas or things; that is, the same object may give a higher degree of happiness to one person than to another; but no degree of human happiness can subsist without society: men, therefore, enter into societies for the mutual happiness of each other; and that every individual should enjoy the advantages resulting from such an union, by regulating all human actions by some standard or law. In childhood the laws of action naturally flow from the modes of pleasure and pain, which sensible objects impress on their tender organs. Those of men fundamentally arise from the former, but with this difference, that the reasoning faculty, now grown strong by experience, determines these things to be good or evil, in the same manner in which we before affirmed this or that to be pleasure or pain. Hence it is evident that the spring of action is the same, both in the mind and in the body; for that which is evil to the mind, is by the same rule painful to the body; and that which is truly pleasing to the body, is also good to the mind. It is therefore evident, that the ideas of good and evil are naturally evident to the mind, by the assistance of reason. The very laws of property may be examined by the first principles of pleasure and pain.-While we are infants, we are subject to the law of our senses; when we are men, to that of our reaAnd therefore, unless we abandon reason, the characteristick of our nature, we must regulate our actions by her precepts.

son.

Though man has a freedom of will, he is not on that account lawless, and at liberty to commit what outrages or violence his vitious apppetites suggest. The will, as well as the appetites, are the servants of reason, and should be go

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verned by her, as she is by her own laws; we may, therefore, rationally conclude, that men should live in perpetual obedience to some laws; and, as the law of reason is the most suitable to human nature, it is consequently the most eligi ble. The immutable will of the Supreme Being is a kind of law which he has imposed upon himself: those immense orbs which regularly move through the system of the universe, have motion and gravitation, attraction and repulsion, assigned for their laws; and man has reason. And it is reasonable to think, that the same economy runs through all the beings in nature.

From what has been said, it evidently appears, that societies are not only the source of happiness, but also absolutely necessary; and that they cannot subsist without some law. Nor should man, notwithstanding the loud demands of his passions, think himself enslaved for living under the dominion of reason; since the great Creator himself regulates his conduct by a law, which, from the unchangeableness of his nature, has subsisted from, and will continue to all eternity. Why then should not we strictly conform ourselves to the principles of reason? If pleasure be desirable, as most surely it is, we can only hope to obtain it by following her dictates. Those pleasures we enjoy, contrary to her precepts, always leave a sting behind them, infinitely superiour to the joys we find in their possession. We should, therefore, always let reason direct our actions, and remember the golden rule of doing to others what we ourselves, in their circumstances, should desire from another. This would greatly tend to conduct a man innocently and safely through the journey of life, till death draws the veil which separates this from the world of spirits.

Dear Sir,

I am, Sir,

Yours affectionately.

LETTER VIII.

From the same, on Pride.

THE great inequality that we often perceive in the productions of the mind of the same inan, is not in the least to be wondered at; for as man's body is composed of the elements, so it varies with the weather, and changes oftener than the moon: so the soul, though in itself immutable, yet as it is

connected with, and compelled to act in and through those corporeal organs, which are always changing, must, of necessity, have its powers of acting more or less impeded; must rise and fall like the mercury in the glass, according to their degree of clearness. Hence the mind in one hour

pure as etherial air, the next, foul as the thickest fog.

For pride, that busy sin,
Spoils all that we perform.

WATTS.

Since the powers of the mind do thus depend upon the organs of the body, which vary like the mind, where is the certainty of human wit? where the boaster of human reason ? This fickleness of the mortal frame, this instability of human wisdom, should teach us humility, and abase our pride. There is surely no passion whatsoever, so universal in the human species as pride, yet none so unreasonable; it is indeed, the very foundation of folly; and he that has the greatest share of it, must of consequence have the least rea

'son.

If we look through the whole race of men, we shall see them all complaining of some want or other; but where shall we find one who has sense enough to complain of the want of reason? We all complain of the want of something which we do not really need; yet the only thing which we truly want, we all think we have not only enough of, but to spare for who is there, who is not satisfied with his own share of sense, or does not think himself able to direct others? Our pride of reason is indeed so great, that we are more ambitious of being esteemed wise than good; yet what can more plainly prove our folly? for who was ever at once both wicked and wise? Wisdom and wickedness can be no more united, than truth and falsehood; where one enters, the other must retire.

Of all human excellencies, reason is undoubtedly the greatest; but there are some whom nature has indeed favoured with superiour powers, who are too apt to look down with a sort of contempt on their fellow-creatures of inferiour parts; yet if they would but impartially look into and consider themselves, they would surely confess, that they have nothing in nature to boast of as really their own: they that have most wisdom, will ever be most humble; they will acknowledge, that whatsoever qualifications they may be blessed with, the honour of them is only due to their Creator. If my watch goes well, shall it boast itself; or is the maker to be praised?

How much more the Creator, who not only puts this human machinery together, but made all the materials also! He that arrogates to himself honours on account of any excellence whatsoever, is a thief, and robs his Creator. The royal Psal mist, when he blessed and praised the Lord for his people's offering so willingly towards erecting the temple, most truly says, 'But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.' There is indeed nothing that mankind are so prone to be proud of as their reason: We look upon that as our own intrinsick jewel, not liable to be lost, like wealth, or fortune's other external favours, but fixed to ourselves, and permanent as our exist ence; yet how often do we see this boasted excellency total ly perish by the most trivial means? A tile falling shall disorder some slender vessel of the brain, when, like a flame extinguished, it vanishes, never to be re-kindled. How of ten, like the shriveled branches of a tree, whose vessels be ing obstructed, wither for want of their nutritive sap, is this vaunted jewel lost by a paralytick blow? Nay, indeed, how often has the vain pride of reason, and the self-assumed honour of it, degraded human nature to a brute, and procured the just punishment of Nebuchadnezzar! Pride is the parent of evil, and of all the passions is the most odious to our Creator, and most hurtful to ourselves :. It makes us rob him of his due praise, and ourselves of all content: For a proud man will ever meet with some poor Mordecai. Pride makes men look at their own merits through a magnifying optick, at others' through a contracting glass: and though it blinds us to our own follies, yet it makes us pry out the frailties of others with eagles' eyes; and according to the word of perfect wisdom, it makes us see the mote in an other's eye, but not the beam in our own. Pride and reason can never accord, they are in nature opposites, and as contrary as love and hatred, and as incompatible as as light and There is however, a just, necessary, and well founded ambition, which we should ever carefully distinguish from pride.

darkness.

To delight in, and take every opportunity of exerting all the powers we are possessed of towards honouring our Creator, and serving our fellow-creatures, is not only reasonable, but the highest and noblest use to which human reason can he applied; it is indeed the very end for which it was given.

Wherever we see a man exerting his powers to these purpo ses, nothing can be more unjust to him, or more detrimental to society, than to attribute them to his pride. We are apt to judge of others by ourselves; when we see another possess such qualifications as would make us proud, we, without further evidence conclude him to be so. Superiour excellence always attracts envious eyes, and what virtue will not envy construe into vice? That ambition can never be justly blamed, that produces, or endeavours to produce, publick good; but some are so envious, that they cannot see any shining talent in another without snarling at it, like dogs barking at the moon.

To curb our pride, and check our unjust censures, we should all look into and study that living and most instructive book, our own hearts; for nothing will so effectually suppress our pride, or correct our censures, as to know ourselves. He that most clearly perceives his own imperfections, will be the last to seek out and condemn those of others; he will be, like those who brought the woman taken in adultery, self-convicted, and steal away in silence. Man's only true way to wisdom is to know himself. He that would be esteemed truly wise, must first find out and amend his own faults: For what regard will be paid to the lips of him, who contradicts them by his life? Who will mind the praises of freedom from the mouth of one who chooses himself to be a slave ? Or, who will be directed in his way by one that cannot see his own? It is certain, that besides the various external impulsions of the elements, which man can no way avoid, he has within himself so many false friends, so many flattering courtiers called passions, who paint in his mind such pleasing, delusive images, and draw such an artful shade over his reason, that renders it very difficult for him to see himself in a true impartial light yet, however difficult it is, it may be done; this mist of the mind may be cleared up; these false friends may be unmasked, and these mental flatterers detected and condemned, by resolutely exerting our reason, and trying them at her unbiassed bar. The best of mankind will, by a thorough and impartial inspection into themselves, by carefully viewing the mirrors of their minds, find failings sufficient to abate their pride.

Self knowledge is, of all attainments whatsoever, the most useful to ourselves, and most beneficent to others: It not only teaches us to think humbly of ourselves, and to amend our faults, but, like heaven, to pity and forgive the frailties