[ r72 1 [Nov/ 



APHOllISMS ON MAN, BY THE LATE WILLIAM IIAZL1TT. 

 [Continued from last Month.} 



XII. 



EVERY one is a hero, the circumstances being given. All that is neces- 

 sary is, that the outward impression should be so strong as to make a 

 man forget himself. A woman rushes into the flames to save her child, 

 not from duty or reason but because the distracting terror for another 

 banishes all recollection of, and fear for, herself. For the same reason, 

 a person throws himself from a precipice, because the apprehension of 

 danger gets the better of and confounds the sense of self-preservation. 

 The doctrine of self-love, as an infallible metaphysical principle of action, 

 is nonsense. 



XIII. 



The heroical ages were those in which there was a constant question 

 between life and death, and men ate their scanty meal with their swords 

 in their hands. 



XIV. 



The hero acts from outward impulse ; the martyr from internal faith, 

 and so far is the greater character of the two. And yet it may be 

 doubted whether the latter is properly a voluntary agent, or whether, 

 if he could do it unperceived, he would not abstract himself from the 

 scene, instead of becoming a sacrifice and a witness to the truth. 



XV. 



What shews that persecution and danger act as incentives rather than 

 impediments to the will, is that zeal generally goes out with the fires that 

 kindle it ; and we become indifferent to a cause, when life, property, 

 and limb are no longer endangered. He is the real philosopher who 

 loves truth for its own sake, not in the spirit of contradiction : he the 

 genuine friend of freedom and justice, who hates oppression and 

 wrong after they have ceased, and as long as the very name of them 

 remains, as well as while it is a bone of contention between infuriated 

 sects and parties. 



XVI. 



If reform were to gain the day, reform would become as vulgar as cant 

 of any other kind. We only shew a spirit of independence and resistance 

 to power, as long as power is against us. As soon as the cause of oppo- 

 sition prevails, its essence and character are gone out of it ; and the 

 most flagrant radicalism degenerates into the tamest servility. We then 

 say as others say ; sail with the stream ; no longer sacrifice interest to 

 principle, but are in a pitiful majority. Had events taken a different 

 turn in 1794, who can predict what the popular cry would have been? 

 This may point out how little chance there is of any great improvement 

 in the affairs of the world. Virtue ceases with difficulty; honesty is 

 militant. The mass of mankind, who are governed by indolence and 

 habit, fall in with existing events and interests; the imaginative and 

 reasoning part fall out with facts and reality ; but could they have their 

 way, and model the world at their pleasure, their occupation would be 

 gone ; or if all governments were wise and good, the character of the 

 patriot would become obsolete, and a sinecure. At present there is a 



