482 Falje Notions of Honour. [Book X. 



the opinions and conclufions formed will be juft. 

 When it is warped out of its natural courfe by an ac- 

 cidental aflbciation, then fuch opinion, and every action 

 founded upon it, will be falfe. Thus, while men an- 

 nex the idea of honour to patriotifm, and that difin- 

 terefted benevolence which prompts a generous fpirit 

 to difregard its own advantage in contending for the 

 fafety and welfare of others, they reafon according to 

 the commori order of nature; but if they by any means 

 narrow the fe nil merit, and can perfuade themfelves that 

 it is lawful to deftroy or injure fome for the fake of 

 others, that falfe notion of honour is generated, which 

 produces war, devaftation, and conqueftj if to this 

 they annex the idea of infult, as heightening the ho- 

 nour, and add the idea of cruelty to infult, which the 

 warmth of pafilon may readily lead them to do, or if 

 it fhould feem a mark of courage to tafte the blood 

 of their enemies, they will think it honourable and right 

 to torture, and perhaps to devour them *. That the 

 univerfe muft have a firft caufe, that a firft caufe muft 

 be felf-exiftent, that a felf-cxiftcnt being muft be 

 eternal, that an eternal and felf-exiftent being muft be 

 without imperfection, is a chain of reafoning that leads 

 directly to a knowledge of the wifdom and goodnefs 

 of our Creator, and ought to infpire us with a defire 



* " The beginnings of this corruption may be noted in many 

 occurrences, as when an ambitious man, by the fame of his high, 

 attempts, a conqueror or a pirate by his boafted enterprizes, raifes 

 in another perfon an efteem and admiration of that immoral and 

 inhuman character, which deferves abhorrence ; 'tis then that the 

 hearer becomes corrupt, when he fecretly approves the ill he hears; 

 but on the other fide, the man who loves and efteems another, as 

 believing him to have that virtue which he has not, but only 

 counterfeits, is not on this account either vicious or corrupt."* 

 Shaftfbury's Enquiry con. Virtue, b. i. p. 2. f 3. 



f 



