On Party-Prejudice. 3 
proportion as the influence of example is extend- 
ed to others: Plusque exemplo, quam peccato no-~ 
cent. 
The evil of party-prejudice is not confined to 
the state. It imvades the peacegof individuals, 
friends, and neighbours. The tender charities of 
blood and kindred are frequently dissolved. De- 
traction is the bitter, but detested foe of human hap- 
piness. Party-malice, however, acting under the 
mask of patriotism, instead of exciting detestation 
of its malignity, too often meets with the applause of 
the zealous ‘partizan. , Characters are thus blasted 
with impunity; and the atrocity of the crime is con- 
cealed by the influence of prejudice. 
There appears a natural bias in the human mind 
towards prejudice. * It often arises,” according to 
the observation of an eloquent French writer,* 
‘¢ from that unhappy tendency in the human mind 
towards .a perplexity in the employment of its 
powers, which plunges it into error, in spite of op- 
position: for the human mind, so far from resem- 
bling a faithful mirror (whose equal surface admits 
and reflects the rays of light with unaltered fidelity) 
may rather be considered as a kind of magical glass, 
which presents only disfigured and monstrous ob- 
jects.” If the soil be so rank, no wonder that the 
4 
* D’Alembert: Encyclopédie, 
oo 
