the ant; and the superiority of instinct over reason, when this faculty is abused, would be readily perceived.

Inequality in the gifts of fortune, and in the various stations of life, has materially changed the original features of humanity. He who reposes on a bed of down, and banquets on delicacies, acknowledges with difficulty the peasant as a brother, whose couch is a plank, and whose morsel is earned by the sweat of his brow. If at times and unobserved, he seem to approximate to an indigent and ignoble person, he soon makes amends for his condescension, by assuming in publick such a haughty air of contempt or indifference, as precludes every idea of familiar acquaintance: but on these occasions, reason pleads the cause of human nature, and in the proud and ambitious heart makes her thunders to be heard. She repeats, without ceasing, that nothing in man is truly great but his soul, and that of all human souls the -origin and destiny are the same. She recalls to their recollection the indigence and weakness in which they enter the world, and in which they must leave it.

As human society has God for its author, they must be worse than savages who violate its obligations. To preserve its harmony, it is necessary that a circulation of wants, of interests, and even of prejudices, all converging to one great object, should be carried on among mankind; and this necessity, so far from exciting any painful sensations, is the source of the most tender and beneficial duties. Man then only deserves this noble title, and enjoys his existence, when his heart is dilated into the sympathies and exertions of benevolence. To a real philosoper no fellow-mortal is a stranger. As a citizen of the world, he cherishes with equal fondness the Greek and the Barbarian, the Asiatick, the European and the American; weeps with those who weep, and rejoices with those who rejoice. Being all things to all men, he lends his whole self to the interests of others, and experiences that heavenly blessedness which consists more in giving than in receiving.

A conduct like this would excite admiration in some, while to others it would appear perfectly romantic; and yet it is surely the genuine dictate of reason. But slaves to their prevailing de

pravities, the proud man and the miser, shut their hearts against it. In the eye of wisdom there can be no more humiliating degradation, than an affected insensibility to human misery. Contemptuously to disclaim any relation with a fellow-mortal, is to renounce and insult the most faithful portrait of ourselves. To fix our chief estimation of men upon their pomp and opulence, is to prefer earthly advantages to the master-piece of God. Since what period, indeed, has dress become of more value than our persons, or money than the immortal spirits within us?

'These obvious truths require no study upon sounding our hearts they immediately become manifest, and we discover our intimate relations with all the individuals of the species. Our thoughts must turn continually upon one or more of the human family. To these must our conversation be addressed, our visits paid, and our correspondence directed; so that notwithstanding any affected indifference, we must recur to society in all the concerns of life. The most solitary mortal must still be found in fields or in cities cultivated or inhabited by his fellow-men. What would be the situation of the monarch whom all his subjects should abandon, or that of the titled and opulent without vassals or domesticks? How wretched our own lot, if, left entire. ly to ourselves, we should be surrounded by nothing but forests and rocks? The very idea of being the only inhabitant of an extensive city, fills the mind with horror. The rich man and the day-labourer depend mutually upon each other; nay, our whole life is a state of continual dependence, and very frequently they are the greatest slaves who imagine themselves the most free.

Reflections of this kind suggested by sound reason, disclose a ray of immortality even in those who are considered as the outcasts of society, and reconcile us to the duty of regarding them as brethren. Servants and other dependants may be treated with supercilious haughtiness, but they will not cease, on that account to be our fellow-creatures still. We may accuse them of selfishness, ingratitude, and indifference; qualities to be found in all ranks of society, and often nourished in the lower by the hard heartedness and exactions of the powerful and wealthy; but no, faults in others must be suffered to extinguish in our minds the

kindred affections and tender sympathies towards them. He who robs us of our property and reputation, or even attempts our life, is still no legitimate object of our animosity; because we cease to spare our own blood, to respect our own reason, to cherish our own existence, when we suffer even the vices of men to embitter our hearts and urge them to revenge. Our souls are made susceptible of so many different sentiments, that when forced to withdraw our esteem we may still bestow our pity.

The most profligate men have a claim to our compassion enforced by the consciousness of our own frailty, which, if left to ourselves, renders us liable to every excess which we condemn in others. "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall," is the caution of an apostle.

How different would be the aspect of society, if charity, which ought to be its soul, were its foundation also? Then would many defects be overlooked, many absurdities be pardoned, a propensity to raillery and domination would cease, and in its place would succeed a docile, humble, and patient frame of mind, intent only on promoting mutual benevolence and friendship. The idea, so degrading to human nature, that gaming is a necessary resource against scandal, would obtain no credit in the world; and the immortal spirit of man would blush to acknowledge the necessity of having recourse to stratagem to cheat it to his duty.

But, however tender our sympathies may be to others with respect to their present evils, unless these be accompanied with solicitude for them reaching beyond the grave, reason assures us that the obligations of humanity are but partially accomplished. The precautions which we deem necessary to our own future happiness, must be extended to the human family at large. The duty is ever urgent and imperious, of administering wholesome advice, of setting an edifying example, and seasoning our discourse with the maxims of love and virtue. These surely arc the genuine dictates of reason, however unpalatable they may appear; either to masters, whose indecent or irreligious language is so frequently calculated to corrupt the hearts and principles of their listening domesticks; or to parents who, solely

intent on the worldly fortunes of their children, make a jest of their irregularities; or of society, where laxity of principles and conduct meets with a countenance which is denied to virtue.

Alas! it is to be feared that the age in which we live is marked above any other, with obvious inattention to the sweetest interests of humanity.-May it not be styled the age of selfishness? In the higher walks of life, has not fashion greatly refined away family cordiality, together with the frank and candid intercourse of the olden time? Where shall we find the sincerity, complaisance, and generosity of our fathers? Every man is become the centre of his own concerns, and thinks only of himself. The rich meaning of the words, relative, friend, and citizen, is feebly understood. A distorted, ridiculous, and frequently stupid feeling called love, has usurped the name of friendship; and mere sensations have succeeded to the magnanimous sentiments of our fathers. In many of our most celebrated schools of philosophy, the properties of matter are inculcated as sufficient substitutes for the qualities and functions of spirit; and too many of the rising generation from dogmatizing materialists, become by a natural transition, the votaries of sordid interest and degrading sensuality. The soul of man is ranked among those spectres, which though never visible, and their existence be questionable, are nevertheless the objects of terrour: to avoid them the materialist is deaf to every remonstrance within him, and pours out his whole mind upon the external world. Nay, many who admit the reality of spirit, abandon themselves to frivolous pursuits. which palsy the operations of reason, and seek for nothing in society beyond the gratification of humour.

But, whether languishing in inaction, or eager in the pursuit of business or amusement, the duty of mutual intercourse and mutual benevolence never ceases to exist. Tears and smiles were bestowed on man to express his participation in the sorrows and joys of his brother. If we would reflect frequently that the gratification of our own inclinations is not the end of our existence, we should be less fastidious in our social intercourse with mankind. A certain indefinable something which the world call style or ton, and is the reigning folly of the age, has

almost banished from society the simplicity of nature; and talents without varnish, and virtues without ornament, are ridiculed as the clumsy manners of our Gothick forefathers. With more of useful occupation, and less of self-importance, this false delicacy would not be so prevalent.

When treating on this subject, may not something be said of that petulance of temper, that malady of the soul, which, without amounting either to anger or malevolence, suddenly assails its unhappy votaries, and renders them the tormentors of their neighbours and most intimate friends? Under the influence of this unfortunate temper, this tyrant of society, husbands contract a habit of complaining, and wives of irritating; and masters, otherwise conscientious, appear unfeeling and cruel. Sometimes this disposition rises to very guilty excesses. It passes suddenly from boisterous mirth to peevish melancholy, from love to hatred, from caresses to invectives, from avarice to prodigality; utterly destroying all consistency of character, and robbing a man, as it were, of himself. It excites to antipathies often as fatal as they are ridiculous, and deprives the very best of human actions of their value. Reason, which sanctions nothing but the result of reflection, is ever at variance with this unhappy temper. How often has she suggested to us the folly of being angry without a cause; but the voice of passion had anticipated her wise and equitable remonstrances. Learn, says reason, that man can be said only so far to partake of my noble attributes, as he is guided by principle; that the uniform tenour of his life should not be disturbed by contending emotions; that his heart is formed to act in concert with his soul; and that his passions are never warrantable but when promoting the interests of virtue and humanity.

Were the human mind less dissipated than it is, this inward voice would soon produce in it a wonderful revolution. Debts would be paid with greater punctuality; disinterested loans would become more frequent; the prisoner would not be forgotten in his dungeon, nor the labourer in his cottage, nor the widow and the orphan left to pine alone in sorrow and indigence. Money would be considered principally as a means of obliging,