OF THE BRAIN AND MIND. 249 



tut this is not its most common or its most useful 

 field. In ordinary life, it finds ample scope in chanty 

 to our neighbours, and in contributing to the happi- 

 ness of our family circle and of our associates and 

 dependants. Benevolence is much better occupied 

 in adding a gleam of enjoyment, in removing little 

 sources of irritation, in promoting concord among" 

 relatives, and in other kind offices of a similar nature, 

 than in giving alms indiscriminately to all who de 

 mand them, or even in relieving occasional distress, 

 where this is held to dispense, as it too often is, 

 with all obligation to habitual forbearance and Chris- 

 tian good-will in the private relations of life. But 

 how little is this most important faculty directly 

 attended to or cultivated, in the way we see done 

 with the faculties necessary for the practice of 

 drawing or music, which, by incessant exercise 



Erocured at a great sacrifice of time, money, and 

 ibour, are brought into such a state of activity as 

 ever after to enable their possessors to derive de- 

 light from their exercise, where the talents are 

 possessed in any considerable degree ! And what 

 might we not expect from the systematic training of 

 the higher sentiments on a similar plan, in improv- 

 ing society and exalting the happiness of the race ! 

 But it is evident, that the objects of benevolence 

 are our fellow-creatures ; and consequently, if we 

 restrict our intercourse and our sympathies to the 

 limits of our own drawing-rooms, and take no in- 

 terest in the progress of the race, or of the individ- 

 uals composing it, we leave our best faculties in 

 abeyance, and reap the reward of bodily debility and 

 mental weakness and monotony. 



Conscientiousness is another principle of the 

 mind that requires direct cultivation, and that rarely 

 receives it. It holds the balance between man and 

 man, and is excited by the presentment of any dif- 

 ference of right between individuals, of any injus- 

 tice, of any temptation offered by the other faculties, 



