324 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On Presupice.—An Essay read before 
the Literary Club in London. 
T has been said, that “man is the 
child of prejudice;” and never was a 
truth more complete. All our thoughts, 
actions, hopes, wishes, and whole man- 
ner of being, are founded on prejudice. 
From the cradle to the grave we are 
attended by prejudice. Prejudice is 
our nurse in infancy, it is our tutor in 
childhood, it is our companion in man- 
hood, and our crutch in oldage: for we 
begin with, and we never shake off the 
habit of judging before we think, or 
taking things for granted, without having 
first examined their fitness, or truth. 
Every blind belief, every implicit obe- 
dience to custom, or fashion, however 
great the authority on which it rests, is 
a prejudice. Yet, although prejudice is 
unbecoming the wise—though a preju- 
diced individual is generally contemp- 
tible, and even sometimes dangerous, 
there are prejudices which, so far from 
being contemptible, are even necessary 
to the well-being of man and of society.’ 
Such are the prejudices of religion, of 
consanguinity, of nationality, kindred, 
&c. They originate in the holiest aspi- 
rations, the kindliest feelings of the 
human heart, instilled in us during the 
guileless age of childhood, when love 
and gratitude still bloom in their native 
freshness, untainted by the Upas of 
envy, cupidity and malice. What 
. would man be without such prejudices 
as these? Would he honour his father 
and mother, because mere reason dic- 
tates it? Would he be a protector to 
his defenceless sisters, a father to his 
orphan brothers ? would he sacrifice his 
freedom for the happiness of a wife ?— 
nay, would he sacrifice himself for his 
own offspring, because duty commands 
him to do so?* What would be to 
him his friends, his country, his nation, 
his God/ without these sacred preju- 
dices? How cold are the acts of man, 
to which he is solely impelled by reason ! 
how frigid the mere emanations of duty! 
how ineffective the religion of the brain! 
When interest commands—when cupi- 
dity urges—when the passions impel 
us—reason, reason alone is but a slow 
agent to counteract their united, or 
even their single effect.- Friends—re- 
* Does not the author here, in some de- 
gree, confound prejudice and sympathy ? 
—EpIr. 
+ And, might it not be added—“‘ How 
apt it is to take the part of interest!” But 
js it not by sympathy rather than by prejudice 
On Prejudice. 
[May 1], 
latives may have perished—our country 
may have fallen a prey to domestic ty- 
ranny, or a foreign foe, and its name be 
obliterated from the chart of history, be- 
fore the logic of reason could nerve the 
arm in their defence. Such prejudices, 
then, we will foster and preserve; and 
although the heartless infidel may mock, 
the cold cosmopolite may sneer—with- 
out these prejudices we could neither 
bear up against the ills of earth, nor 
become worthy of the bliss of heaven. 
But there are prejudices of another 
kind,—such “as have sprung from igno- 
rance, are fomented by the interested, 
or cherished by the indolent—who are 
hostile to the results, or averse to the 
trouble of reflection. These every 
thinking mind, every friend to man, will 
labour to eradicate. I will endeavour 
‘to place a few of these prejudices (ridi- 
culous, pardonable, and prejudicial) in 
their proper light, as they occur—to 
classify, or enumerate them all, would 
surpass alike the limits of my ability and 
of your patience. 
It is prejudice which, at the moment 
of our birth, coops us up in ‘a close 
room, while sound sense dictates to ac- 
custom the new being, at once, to that 
atmosphere in which it is destined to 
live. It is prejudicé which makes us 
consent to lace, or button ourselves in 
tight clothing, when we know, from ex- 
perience, that we are never more com- 
fortable than in our night-gowns. We 
eat, without appetite, because it is din- 
ner time; and we drink, without being 
thirsty, because it is tea-time; we go 
to bed; because it is eleven o’clock; 
and. we get up, because it is eight 
o’clock.f And when, by all this per- 
verseness of ours, our constitution is 
ruined, we apply to a physician to re- 
medy it, who gives us certain medi- 
cines, from prejudice: though, but for 
the prejudices that blind him, expe- 
rience might, perhaps, have taught him 
that 
that this tardiness is to be urged—this sel- 
fishness counteracted ?—Epir. 
t Weare very lazy, then! The we who 
writes, and the we who edits have very dif- 
ferent prejudices, it seems, on this subject ! 
To lie nine hours in bed, is certainly not 
one of our prejudices. We suspect that 
from six to seven hours is quite bed-time 
enough; and our prejudices lead us to sus- 
pect that it does not much signify to a man, 
in tolerable health, whether he take that 
portion between eleven and six, or between 
one and eight. We would not answer that 
our prejudices neyer dictate a wider latitude. 
—Enir. 
