EFFECTS OF MALEVOLENCE. 



55 



In the mean time, while the greater part of 

 mankind are immersed in ignorance and vice, 

 while the image of their Maker is defaced, and 

 their immortal powers prostituted to the vilest 

 passions, the most noble and honourable opera 

 tion in which love can be engaged, is to devise 

 and execute schemes by which our degraded 

 brethren may be raised to intellectual and moral 

 excellence: to train up young immortals in re 

 ligion and virtue ; to diffuse the principles of 

 useful knowledge among all ranks ; to counteract 

 the diabolical spirit of war and contention ; to 

 abolish slavery in every shape ; to meliorate the 

 social and domestic condition of the lower orders 

 of society; to publish the revelation of God in 

 every language, and to send forth the messen 

 gers of salvation to every land, to instruct men of 

 all nations and kindreds and tongues in the 

 knowledge of the true God, and of the path which 

 leads to a blessed immortality. Thus shall we 

 be enabled to manifest our Jove towards all our 

 brethren of the human family ; thus shall we con 

 tribute to render them worthy of our highest af 

 fection, and to prepare them for the exalted 

 exercises and employments of the life to come. 



SECTION IV. 



LOVE TO GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOUR ENFORCED 

 AND ILLUSTRATED, FROM A CONSIDERA 

 TION OF THE MISERABLE EFFECTS WHICH 

 WOULD ENSUE WERE THESE PRINCIPLES 

 REVERSED, AND WERE RATIONAL BEINGS 

 TO ACT ACCORDINGLV. 



THE two leading principles which I have en 

 deavoured to illustrate, in the preceding pages, 

 form the basis of the moral order of the intelli 

 gent universe. Consequently, were these prin 

 ciples reversed, and were moral agents to act 

 accordingly, the moral world would soon be trans 

 formed into a scene of the most dismal anarchy 

 and confusion. Every action would be dictated 

 by feelings of pure malevolence, and misery in 

 every shape would be the great object which hu 

 man beings would exert their powers to accom 

 plish. Could we suppose for a moment, that so 

 ciety could subsist for any length of time under 

 the unrestrained operation of such a principle, the 

 following, among many thousands of similar ef 

 fects, would be the natural and necessary results. 



Every individual would exhibit, in every 

 action, the character of a fiend ; and every fami 

 ly would display a miniature picture of hell. 

 Between the husband and wife there would be 

 nothing but incessant brawling, dissension, and 

 execration. Whatever was ardently desired by 

 the one would be as resolutely and obstinately 

 opposed by the other ; and the fury and resentment 

 excited by unsatisfied desires, and disappointed 



hopes, would destroy eve-y vestige of peace and 

 tranquillity, and stimulate a host of infernal pas 

 sions to rage without control. Their children 

 would be actuated by the same diabolical tempers. 

 The son would take an infernal pleasure in curs 

 ing, insulting, and reproaching &quot; the father that 

 begat him,&quot; and in trampling with scorn and in 

 dignation on the mother who gave him birth. 

 Brothers and sisters would live under the con 

 tinual influence of malice and envy, &quot; hateful, and 

 hating one another.&quot; Whatever actions tended 

 to irritate, to torment, and to enrage the passions 

 of each other, and to frustrate their desires and 

 expectations, would be performed with a grin of 

 infernal delight. Mutual scuffles and execrations 

 would ensue. One would have his eye-ball bruis 

 ed, or knocked out of its socket, another would 

 have his teeth driven out of his jaws ; one would 

 have his hair torn from its roots, another his 

 skull fractured with repeated blows ; the legs of 

 one would be full of bruises and putrifying 

 sores, and the face of another all over covered 

 with blotches and scars, most hideous to behold ; 

 and, in the progress of contention, the hand of a 

 brother would plunge his dagger into a brother s 

 heart. In larger societies, fraud, falsehood, de 

 ceit, seduction, quarrels, oppression, plunder, ra 

 pine, murder, and assassination, would be the 

 common occurrences of every day and every hour. 

 The seller would uniformly endeavour to cheat 

 the buyer, and the buyer would endeavour, by every 

 kind of fraud, or open force, to deprive the sel 

 ler of the value of his commodities. Poison would 

 be sold for medicine, and deleterious mixtures and 

 poisonous drugs would be mixed up with the com 

 mon articles of food, that the venders might enjoy 

 the diabolical pleasure of hearing of the pains, 

 the agonies, and the dying groans of the victims 

 of their villany. The debauchee would triumph 

 in the number of victims he had rendered wretch 

 ed and forlorn by his wiles and depraved pas 

 sions ; the strong would oppress the weak, anc? 

 rejoice in depriving them of every comfort, and 

 the powerful would exult in trampling under their 

 feet the persons and the property of fhe poor, and 

 in beholding the extent of the miseries they had 

 created. 



In the common intercourse of life, every one 

 would be maltreated, insulted, and reproached, 

 as he walked along the street ; the lip would be 

 shot out with a diabolical grin at every passen 

 ger, which would be returned with the frown and 

 the scowl of a demon. Every passenger that 

 met another on the highway would be encoun 

 tered with blows, execrations, and reproaches ; 

 and he who met his neighbour unawares in the 

 recesses of a forest, would receive a dagger in 

 his breast before he was aware of his danger. 

 Words would be exchanged between man and 

 man that would cut each other s hearts &quot;like the 

 piercings of a sword,&quot; and horrible contentions, 

 accompanied with rage and fury, and wound* 



