partial; to retain also the activity and elasticity of the mind, by which, after being depressed, it returns to its wonted shape and tone. Now the man who abandons himself to sentiments of disgust and aversion towards his species, deprives himself of every one of these expedients: he takes no pains to examine the various circumstances from which human happiness may be derived: He never is employed by any such principle. as the hope of good, and never regulates any rude trials made for the purpose of producing it. If he cannot at once enjoy what he fixes his heart upon, be will enjoy nothing: In this his example is of pernicious tendency; submission and resignation are made for man; and if they are genuine, leave the mind at liberty to find and pursue new resources. But the man-hater is too sullen to look about for those treasures of happiness which are diffused through the world; he sees not that when one mine is exhausted, there are numberless others unopened and untouched; he reflects not, that alacrity and. address in quitting one expedient and flying to another; in bringing nearer to him the more distant sorts of good; in extracting from what is within his reach all. possible enjoyment, would entirely prevent his ever being destitute of happiness. He takes for granted that which he can never know, that the good he now enjoys, or may enjoy, is inferior to that which he regrets. In such a state, his mind is so enfeebled as to lose its spring, and fall into habitual inactivity.

14. An evil which is of a growing nature, must he estimated as greater on that account. And misanthropy grows with age. Indeed every man, who attends to the nature of Duties, grows more clear and ready in discerning them, as he grows older; is more struck with deviations from them; feels more surprised that any thing so plain, depending only on common sense, should be so frequently missed; and therefore, if there were nothing to counteract this, and if perfection were always deemed indispensable, every man would perceive fastidiousness to grow upon him, and the circle of those whom he loved and esteemed to become continually narrower; but if a man with encreasing age retains his health and his benevolence, he finds fastidiousness re

strained by increasing candour, aud the circle of the objects of his esteem and love even enlarged, by the enlargements of his views and opinions. Youth is frequently indignant and intolerant; but the man who has observed things carefully, comprehends the great variety of principles upon which different persons act; sees how men equally well-meaning rashly blame each other; watches the manner in which error and vice creep into the mind unperceived; is able to discover in men unthinkingly condemned, good qualities, which make them on the whole equal in worth to those who presume to be their judges. Now misanthropy heightens the strictness and fastidiousness here described, and checks the growth of the candour by which it should be tempered.-a progression of sentiment that must greatly interupt those mutual regards, upon which the pleasing and useful intercourse of mankind chiefly depends.

15. Amongst the mischiefs of misanthropy there is no reason why we should omit such as the man-hater brings upon himself; although they may be more merited than such as he brings upon others. The mind of man is always restless and uneasy when deprived of the exercise of benevolence. He therefore who hates mankind, must feel himself under confinement of a very irksome and vexatious sort. He is continually tending, towards a pleasing object, which his malignant passions will not suffer him to embrace. Shame, obstinacy, illhumour, prevent his owning his uneasiness, and therefore his rescuing himself from it; though their influence upon his mind, and his secret consciousness of it, aggravate his slavery, and make his fetters more galling Moreover, his temperainent is such, that all the different kinds of malevolent sentiments take fire in his breast, and mutually inflame each other; so as to overpower all resistance from reason and conscience. Hence it is at one time anger which appears as the immediate *cause of his excesses; at another time jealousy; though neither of them would have appeared at all had not his mind been previously heated. Impelled by this variety of malevolent passions, he runs into difficulties, from which he is never afterwards perfectly free; his want of self-government is so plainly seen, that snares are laid

for him; he is artfully exasperated, and becomes the dupe of men much inferior to himself both in understanding and morals: ensnared and entangled, he looks around him for friendly assistance: and friends he may find; more easily than he can rid himself of his suspicions, and his prejudices against them. But I fear it sometimes happens, that the securities and the sacrifices to his humours, which he suggests, revolt the most friendly; and their coolness must encrease his irritation. Deprived of the attentions of the most benevolent and disinterested, what can be his resources? It is well if the indulgence of some depraved passion or appetite do not grow upon him: there is but too much reason to dread the brutal stupidity of solitary intemperance. Nay when such indulgence permits any intervals of sensibility, may he not make his own destruction the principal subject of his gloomy deliberations?

16. But let us now, in the fourth and last place, endeavour to propose some remedies for the evils which we have enumerated. In all mental disorders, remedies must first be applied to the Understanding, and afterwards to the heart and affections. For though the weak arguments used to justify the irregular indulgence of passion are frequently more the work of feeling than of reason, yet it always happens, that when the affections are in disorder, some important truths are overlooked and neglected. In the disorder called misanthropy the following may serve as instances;

Virtue in all men is imperfect; it consists of rules gradually brought to light by experience; and that experience is imperfect amongst the wisest, and extremely defective amongst the less informed. Improvement may be an object of our hope; but perfection is beyond our ken. Hence we must expect to find in different men different degrees of knowledge respecting duties, even where there is not any opposition of opinions, or any faulty intention. Such imperfection requires inindulgence, both for the ignorant and enlightened. And particularly for the enlightened when acting towards the ignorant; for your duties to any man depend not only on your own notions, but on his. You are not to trust a savage as you would a civilized person of good

reputation: your cbligations to hospitality are not the same to a man of tried probity, and to one who has very rude notions of honesty and honour.

17. We have here supposed degrees of knowledge in morals without opposite opinions; but in fact, men hold different systems of ethics, even when their knowledge need not be considered as materially unequal. It may be doubted whether any two men act upon all the same principles; even when equally improved in intellect, and equally sincere and well-meaning. To be impatient therefore or disgusted when men do not conduct themselves according to our own particular notions of right and wrong, is to take that for true which is false; is to impose our opinions on all other and must be considered as a sure indication of a narrow, bigotted and contracted mind.

men;

Had men therefore no opposite opinions, but only different degrees of knowledge of their duties, such difference would demand great candour as to what should be insisted upon from them; or had they the same knowledge, but only different opinions concerning right and wrong; such difference of opinion would be a just foundation for kind indulgence and forbearance; how great then ought, the allowances to be when nien are found to differ so very much as they now do, both in their degrees of knowledge and in their opinions concerning subjects of morality!

18. But remedies are to be applied to the heart as well as to the understanding. Indeed this is requisite even for the understanding itself; since, as was before observed, settled notions depend in a great measure upon habitual feelings. Give a new turn to the feelings, and opinions will be found pliable and accommodating. This may not be easily effected, but it is worth attempting.

Here the first attention must be paid to bodily health: for disorders of the body depress and irritate the mind, and embitter the disposition; those complaints especially, which are unfixed, and not well defined, and

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which want a name, are apt to sour the temper; one reason is, they do not excite the same friendly concern and sympathy with well known disorders, nor are they alleviated by the same hope of recovery: and thus they bring on or heighten, the mental disorder under consideration which would freequently abate and even die away, thought it had acquired some strength, could its bodily causes be removed. The misfortune is, that disorders in body and mind, are too seldom considered as connected with each other. Amongst bodily disorders which men of some virtue are apt to contract, I know not whether it might not be worth while to specify those arising from luxury and intemperance, when not carried to a degree that is disreputable. There is an insolence attending these, a disatisfaction, a craving, which effectually banishes all mildness; all gentle and candid benevolence; and greatly diminishes that Love, which all truly good men bear towards mankind.

19. In providing remedies for misanthropy it might be sometimes of use to make one man-hater the instrument of correcting another. This will be effected the most casily when disgust in two minds has arisen from different circumstances, and in different situations. The first hates the second, and the second hates the first; yet neither of them has any idea that he is an object of hatred or would receive any pleasure from considering himself in that light. If a contention could be instituted between two man-haters, in order to determine which was the properest object, (for all hatred must have an object,) it might open the eyes of both and might dispose them to a compromise and reconciliation, not only with each other, but with their whole species. (e)

20. But the gloominess and malignity of the misanthrope would generally be best dispelled by introducing into his mind some kind of pleasure or enjoyment. The dark cells and caverns of his heart should, if possible be illuminated. His hard congealed austerity should be thawed and melted away. Yet without some nicety and circumspection the experiment may fail: his moral feelings are become so delicate, that at first there are