is not equally true of man? Admit it; and what follows? If fo, then honour and justice are my intereft; then the whole train of moral virtues are my intereft; without fome portion of which, not even thieves can maintain fociety

But, farther ftill-I ftop not here I pursue this focial intereft as far as I can trace my feveral relations. I pafs from my own ftock, my own neighbourhood, my own nation, to the whole race of mankind, as difperfed throughout the earth. Am I not related to them all, by the mutual aids of commerce, by the general intercourfe of arts and letters, by that common nature of which we all participate X7

Again I must have food and cloathing. Without a proper genial warmth, I inftantly perish. Am I not related, in this view, to the very earth itfelf? to the diftant fun, from whofe beams I derive vigour to that ftupendous courfe and order of the infinite host of heaven, by which the times and feafons ever uniformly pafs on? Were this order once confounded, I could not probably furvive a moment; fo abfolutely do I depend on this common general welfare. What, then, have I to do, but to enlarge virtue into piety! Not only honour and justice, and what I owe to man is my intereft; but gratitude alfo, acquiefcence, refignation, adoration, and all I owe to this great polity, and its great Governour our common Parent.

SECTION III.

The Injustice of an uncharitable Spirit.

A SUSPICIOUS, uncharitable fpirit is not only inconfiftent with all focial virtue and happiness, but it is alfo, in itself, unreasonable and unjust. In order to form found opinions concerning characters and actions, two things are especially requifite, information and impartiality. But fuch as are moft forward to decide unfavourably, are commonly deftitute of both. Instead of poffeffing, or even requiring, full information, the grounds on which they proceed are frequently the most flight and frivolous. A tale, perhaps, which the idle have invented, the inquifitive have liftened to, and the credulous have propagated; or a real incident which rumour, in carrying it along, has exaggerated and difguifed, fupplies them with materials of confident affertion, and decifive judgment. From an action they prefently look into the heart, and infer the motive. This fuppofed motive they conclude to be the ruling principle; and pronounce at once concerning the whole character.

Nothing can be more contrary both to equity and to found reafon, than fuch precipitate judgments. Any man who attends to what paffes within himself, may eafily difcern what a complicated fyftem the human character is; and what a variety of circumftances muft be taken into the account, in order to eftimate it truly. No fingle inftance of conduct whatever, is fufficient to determine it. As from one worthy action, it were cre

dulity, not charity, to conclude a perfon to be free from all vice; fo from one which is cenfurable, it is perfectly unjuft to infer that the author of it is without confcience, and without merit. If we knew all the attending circumftances, it might appear in an excufable light; nay, perhaps under a commendable form. The motives of the actor may have been entirely different from thofe which we afcribe to him; and where we fuppofe him impelled by bad defign, he may have been prompted by conscience and mistaken principle. Admitting the action to have been in every view criminal, he may have been hurried into it through inadvertency and furprife. He may have fincerely repented; and the virtuous principle may have now regained its full vigour. Perhaps this was the corner of frailty; the quarter on which he lay open to the incurfions of temptation; while the other avenues of his heart were firmly guarded by confcience.

It is therefore evident, that no part of the government of temper deferves attention more, than to keep our minds pure from uncharitable prejudices, and open to candour and humanity in judging of others. The worst consequences, both to ourfelves and to fociety, follow from the oppofite fpirit.

SECTION IV.

BLAIR.

The misfortunes of men moftly chargeable on them

felves.

We find man placed in a world, where he has by no means the difpofal of the events that hap

pen. Calamities fometimes befal the worthieft and the best, which it is not in their power to prevent, and where nothing is left them, but to acknowledge and to fubmit to the high hand of Heaven. For fuch vifitations of trial, many good and wife reasons can be affigned, which the prefent fubject leads me not to difcufs. But though thofe unavoidable calamities make a part, yet they make not the chief part, of the vexations and forrows that diftrefs human life. A multitude of evils be

fet us, for the fource of which we muft look to another quarter.-No fooner has any thing in the health, or in the circumftances of men, gone cross to their wish, than they begin to talk of the unequal distribution of the good things of this life; they envy the condition of others; they repine at their own lot, and fret against the Ruler of the world.

Full of these fentiments, one man pines under a broken conftitution. But let us ask him, whether he can, fairly and honestly, affign no caufe for this but the unknown decree of Heaven? Has he duly valued the bleffing of health, and always obferved the rules of virtue and fobriety? Has he been moderate in his life, and temperate in all his pleafures? If now he is only paying the price of his former, perhaps his forgotten, indulgences, has he any title to complain, as if he were fuffering unjustly? Were we to furvey the chambers of fickness and diftrefs, we fhould often find them peopled with the victims of intemperance and fenfuality, and with the children of vicious indolence and floth. Among the thoufands who languifh there, we fhould find the proportion of innocent fufferers to

be fmall. We fhould fee faded youth, premature old age, and the profpect of an untimely grave, to be the portion of multitudes who, in one way or. other, have brought thofe evils on themfelves while yet these martyrs of vice and folly have the affurance to arraign the hard fate of man, and to "fret against the Lord.

;

But you, perhaps, complain of hardships of another kind; of the injuftice of the world; of the s poverty which you fuffer, and the difcouragements under which you labour; of the croffes and difap pointments of which your life has been doomed to be full. Before you give too much fcope to your difcontent, let me defire you to reflect impartially upon your paft train of life. Have not floth, or pride, or ill temper, or finful paffions, mifled you often from the path of found and wife: conduct? Have you not been wanting to your felves in improving thofe opportunities which Providence offered you, for bettering and advancing your ftate? If you have chofen to indulge your humour or your taste, in the gratifications of indolence or pleasure, can you complain because others, in preference to you, have obtained those advantages which naturally belong to ufeful labours, and honourable pursuits? Have not the confequences of fome falfe fteps, into which your paffions, or your pleafures, have betrayed you, purfued you through much of your life; tainted, perhaps, your characters, involved you in embar-> rafsments, or funk you into neglect ?It is an old faying, that every man is the artificer of his own fortune in the world. It is certain, that the world feldom turns wholly against a man, unless through