The young man who is born to the prospect of hereditary wealth, will not unfrequently feel as ge- nerous emotions, and as much of the spirit of self- denial, as the bosom of man is capable of conceiv- ing. He will say. What am I, that I should have a monopoly of those things, which, if ^^ well dis- pensed, in unsuperfluous, even proportion," would supply the wants of all? He is ready, agreeably to the advice of Christ to the young man in the Go- apel, to " sell all that he has, and give to the poor," if he could be shewn how so generous a resolution on his part could be encountered with an extensive conspiracy of the well-disposed, and rendered avail- able to the real melioration of the state of man in society. Who is there so ignorant, or that has lived in so barren and unconceiving a tract of the soil of earth, that has lioj his tale to tell of the sublime emotions and the generous purposes he XXIII*] OF HUMAN VIRTUE. 465 • has witnessed^ which so often mark this beautiful era of our sublunary existence?
But this is in the dawn of life, and the first inno- cence of the human heart. When once the young man of ^^ great possessions*' has entered the gardens of Alcina^ when he has drunk of the cup of her enchantments^ and seen all t^e delusive honour and consideration that, in the corruptness of modem times^ are the lot of him who is the owner of con- siderable wealth, the dreams of sublime virtue are too apt to fade away. He was willing before, to be nourished with the simplest diet, and clad with the plainest attire. He knew that he was but a man like the rest of his species, and was in equity enti- tled to no more than they. But he presently learns a very different lesson. He believes that he cannot live without splendour and luxury; he regards a noble mansion, elegant vesture, horses, equipage, and an ample establishment, as things without which he must be hopelessly miserable. That in- come, which he once thought, if divided, would have secured the happiness ' and independence of many, he now finds scarcely sufficient to supply his increased and artificial cravings.
But, if the rich are seduced and led away from the inspirations of virtue, it may easily be conceived how much more injurious, and beyond the power of control, are the effects on the poor. The myste- rious source from which the talents of men are derived, cannot be supposed in their distribution to 2 H 466. OF HUMAN VIRTUE. [SSSAY be regulated by the artificial laws of society^ and to have one measure for those which are bestowed upon the opulent, and another for the destitute. It will therefore not seldom happen that powers sus- ceptible of the noblest uses may be cast, like ^^ seed sown upon stony places,** where they have scarcely any chance to be unfolded and matured. In a few instances they may attract the attention of persons both able and willing to contribute to their being brought to perfection. In a few instances the prin- ciple may be so vigorous, and the tendency to excel so decisive, as to bid defiance to and to conquer every obstacle. But in a vast majority the promise will be made vain, and the hopes that might have been entertained will prove frustrate. What can be Expected from the buds of the most auspicious in- fancy, if encountered in their earliest stage with the rigorous blasts of a polar climate?
And not only will the germs of excellence be likely to be extinguished in the members of the lower class of the community, but the teitiptations to irregular acts and incroachments upon the laws for the security of property will often be so great, as to be in a manner irresistible. The man who petceives that, with all his industry, he cannot pro- vide for the bare subsistence of himself and those dependent upon him, while his neighbour revels in boundless profusion, cannot but sometimes feel hilnself goaded to an attempt to correct this crying evil. What must be expected to become of that XXII!.] OF HUMAN VIRTUE, 41^7 general good- will which ia thye natural inheritance \ of a well-constituted n^indr wheja urged by sp bitter oppression and such unendurable sufferings? The whole temper of the human heart must be spoiled^ and the wiue of life acquire a quality acrimonious and malignant.
But it is not only in the extreme classes of society that the glaring inequality with which property is shared produces its injurious effects. All those who are born in the intermediate ranks are urged with a distempered ambition^ unfavourable to in- < dependence of temper, and to true philanthropy. Each man aspires to the improvement of his cir- cumstances, and the mounting, by one step and another, higher in the scale of the community. The, contemplations of the. mind are turned towards selfishness. In opulent communities we are pre- sented with the genuine theatre for courts and kings. And, wherever there are courts, duplicity, lying, hypocrisy and cringing dwell as in their proper field. Next come trades and professions, with all the ignoble contemplations, the resolved smoothness, servility and falshood, by which they are enabled to gain a prosperous and.triumphant career.
It is by such means, that man, whom "God made upright," is led away into a thousand devious paths, and, long before the closing scene of his life, is rendered something the very reverse of what in the dawning of existence he promised to be. He is like 2 H 2 468 OF HUMAN VIRTUE. [SSSAY Hazael in the Jewish history, who, when the pro- phet set before him the crying enormities he should hereafter perpetrate, exclaimed, *^ Is thy servant a dog," that he should degrade himself so vilely? He feels the purity of his purposes; but is goaded by one excitement and exasperation after another, till he becomes debased, worthless and criminal. This is strikingly illustrated in the story of Dr. Johnson ' and the celebrated Windham, who, when he was setting out as secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, expressed to his aged monitor, some doubts whether he could ever reconcile himself to certain indirect proceedings which he was afraid would be expected of him: to which the veteran replied, " Oh, sir, be under no alarm; in a short time, de- pend upon it, you will make a very pretty rascal*." Such are the " inventions of man," or rather such h is the operation of those institutions which ordi- narily prevail in society. Still, however, much ho- nour ought to be rendered to our common nature, since all of us are not led away by the potent spells of the enchantress. If the vulgar crew of the vessel * The phrase here used by Johnson is marked with the licen* tiousness we sometimes indulge in familiar conversation. Trans- late it into a general maxim; and it contains much melancholy truth. It is true also^ that there are few individuals^ who^ in the urgent realities of life^ have not occasionally descended from the heights of theoretical excellence. It is but just however to ob- serve in the case of Windham, that, though he was a man of many errors, he was not the less characterised by high honour and eminent virtue.
XXIIl.] OF HUMAN VIRTUE. 469 of Ulysses were by Circe changed into brutes, so was not their commander. The human species is divided into two classes, the successfully tempted, / and the tempted in vain. And, though the latter must be admitted to be a small minority, yet they ought to be regarded as the *^ salt of the earth,** which preserves the entire mass from putridity and dishonour. They are like the remnant, which, if they had been to be found in the cities of the Asphaltic lake, the God of Abraham pronounced as worthy to redeem the whole community. They are like the two witnesses amidst the general apo- stasy, spoken of in the book of Revelations, who were the harbingers and forerunners of the mille- nium, the reign of universal virtue and peace. Their ^ i excellence only appears with the greater lustre amidst the general defection.
Nothing can be more unjust than the spirit of general levelling and satire, which so customarily prevails. History records, if you will, the vices and follies of mankind. But does it record nothing else? Are the virtues of the best men, the noblest philosophers, and the most disinterested patriots of antiquity, nothing? It is impossible for two things to be more unlike than the general profligacy of the reigns of Charles the Second and Louis the Fifteenth on the one hand, and the austere virtues and the extinction of all private considerations in the ge- neral happiness and honour, which constitute the spirit of the best pages of ancient history, and which ■7 470 OF HUKAN VIRTUE. [ESSAY exalt aod tiansfix the jspirit of ewevj tngeamooa and high^ouled reader, om the otiier.
Let us thefi pay to humaA. virtue the honour that is so justly its doe! Imagination is indeed a marvellous power; but imagination never. equalled history, the.achievements which man has actually performed. It is in Tain that the man of contem-^ plation sits down in his closet; it is in vain that the poet yields the reins to enthusiasm and fancy.: there is something in the realities of life, that ex- cites the mind infinitely more, than is in the power of the most exalted reverie. The true hero cannot, like the poet, or the delineator of fictitious adven*^ tures, put o£F what he has to do till tOHooiorrow. The occasion calls, and he must obey. He sees the obstacles, and the adversary he has to encoont^, before him. He sees the individuals, for whose dear sake he jresolves to expose himself to every hazard and every evil The very circumstance, that he is called on to act in the face of the public, animates him.. It is thus that resolution is pro- duced, that martyrdom is voluntarily encountered^ and that the deeds of genuine, pure and undeniable heroism are performed.
Let then no man, in the supercilious spirit of a fancied disdain, allow himself to detract from our common nature. We are ourselves the models of all the excellence that the human mind can con- ceive. There have been men, whose virtues may well redeem all the contempt with which satire and de- XXIII.] OF HUMAN VIRTUE. 471 traction have sought to overwhelm our species. There have been memorable periods in the history of man^ when the best^ the most generous and ex- alted sentiments have swallowed up and obliterated all that was of an opposite character. And it is but just, that those by whom these things are fairly considered, should anticipate the progress of our nature, and believe that human understanding and human virtue will hereafter accomplish such things as the heart of man has never yet been daring enough to conceive.
THE END.
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