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tion may usually be formed that he will never be good for much. He may live and die inoffensively, but little energy will appear in his character; and his conduct will exhibit no effort to attain to an intellectual superiority of which he never conceived an idea. The vice of setsuality is apt to commit ravages even upon very valuable minds. It is a general rule, that persons of sedentary habits are most liable to fall into that form of it which consists of an attachment to the pleasures of the table, and which is perhaps the most dangerous. In this view, men of letters are exposed to considerable hazard. In the present age, in consequence of the riches that have flowed from so many quarters into our country, and in consequence of the growing fondness for a city residence; the evil is understood to prevail to a dangerous extent. It is even said, that by far the greater part of what are called nervous distempers, which are now so extremely prevalent among persons in easy circumstances, are the result of indolence, added to habitual indulgence in the pleasures last mentioned. It is also said to be in some measure owing to this vice, that a smaller proportion than formerly of the English dignified clergy, and others holding conspicuous stations in the universities or elsewhere, now possess a distinguished literary reputation. Indeed, the evils produced by sensuality are beyond the reach of

calculation, and have been complained of in every age. Many a gallant people, after having run a splendid career of arts and glory, have seen their honours all blasted by the selfish and stupid indolence produced by luxurious habits, which withdraw the mind from public and generous cares, and subdue its whole activity. The approaches of this vice, therefore, ought to be carefully resisted, by avoiding the kind of society in which it is most indulged, and by engaging the mind in active and valuable pursuits either of speculation or of business. Even the pursuits of vanity, ambition, avarice, or almost any other passion, are to be preferred to habitual indulgence in sensual, or in what are called convivial pleasures, which, if they do not prove injurious to health, at least render all activity painful, and never fail, ultimately, to sink the character into utter insignificance.

CHAP. X.

OF THE BENEVOLENT AFFECTIONS.

WHEN the mind has frequently derived pleasure from any object, or from the society of any person, such objects and persons come gradually to be remembered or associated in the memory along with the pleasures they have excited, and are therefore regarded with satisfaction. This satisfaction is called a benevolent affection, because it usually produces in the mind a desire of communicating its own happiness.

It has generally been supposed that the benevolent affections are originally implanted in our constitution, like the senses of sight or of hearing; but this is an error. They do indeed grow up in our nature in consequence of our situation and original character, but they are the result of our exertions and enjoyments.

The human mind has a great tendency to attach itself to the various objects by which it is surrounded, and to contract a fondness for them. The house in which we have long lived, the

woods and the mountains among which we have been accustomed to wander, a great stone upon which we have sat, or the stream to whose murmurs we have listened, frequently become the objects of a very pleasing regard. Our affection for these inanimate parts of Nature may be resolved into the pleasure which results from activity, and the memory of that pleasure. Our fondness for any object increases in proportion to the degree in which it has excited our attention, or cost us labour, or even anxiety. The rude rock upon which we have only gazed, does not interest our affections like the plant that we placed in the ground, and which has flourished under our care. The dog and the horse are also the most beloved of animals, because they occupy our attention in the highest degree.

But it is in the bosom of our own species that we first learn to think, to act, and to feel. During the period of a long infancy, our whole attention is occupied by the cares that are continually exerted towards us; and all our efforts at that early period are directed towards our protectors. Hence, even at that tender age (in which however the pleasures of exertion are felt as strongly as at any future period), we learn to love the human race, because their society is the means of calling forth whatever activity we possess, and is consequently the source of our chief pleasures.

We are not only born in society, but we continue in it, and it never ceases to afford the best opportunities of exerting all the energies of our nature. In the course of a long life, during our own education, amidst the schemes, the efforts, or the business of manhood, or in giving life and education to others, we are continually occupied by our own species. Our exertions are made in the midst of them. lation, our courage, and all that activity of character which is the source of our felicity. The human race, therefore, in consequence of our associating the idea of their presence with all our ideas and recollections of pleasure, gradually become the objects of our highest attachment and regard: and they become dear to us in proportion to the degree in which they have called forth our attention or our care; for even care and uneasiness, from the activity they excite, are more grateful to the human mind than indolence and vacancy of thought. Hence the mother, who has suffered in the production of an infant, and who has looked forward to its birth with anxious apprehension, loves it more than the father who has suffered nothing, and who, at that early period, often loves it not at all, unless perhaps in consequence of his attachment to the mother, or his own self-love, which may lead him to regard it as a kind of continuation or part of himself, and as the support of

They call forth our emu

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