

QUss III. 1. 2. 25. OF VOLITION. 329 



Of superstition there infect the skies, 



And turn the sun to horror. Gracious Heaven .! 



What is the life of man ? Or cannot these, 



Not these portents thy awful will suffice ? 



That, propagated thus beyond their scope, 



They rise to act their cruelties anew 



In my afflicted hosom, thus decreed 



The universal sensitive of pain, 



The wretched heir of evils not its own ! 



A poet of antiquity, whose name I do not recollect, is said to 

 have written a book describing the miseries of the world, and to 

 have destroyed himself at the conclusion of his task. This sym- 

 pathy, with all sensitive beings, has been carried so far by some 

 individuals, and even by whole tribes, as the Gentoos, as not 

 only to restrain them from killing animals for their support, but 

 even to induce them to permit insects to prey upon their bodies. 

 Such is however the condition of mortality, that the first law of 

 nature is, u Eat or be eaten." We cannot long exist without 

 the destruction of other animal or vegetable beings, either in 

 their mature or their embryon state. Unless the fruits, which 

 surround the seeds of some vegetables, or the honey stolen from 

 them by the bee, may be said to be an exception to this asser- 

 tion. See Botanic Garden, P. I. Cant. 1. 1. 278. Note. Hence, 

 from the necessity of our nature, we may be supposed to have a 

 right to kill those creatures, which we want to eat, or which 

 want to eat us. But to destroy even insects wantonly shews an 

 unreflecting mind or a depraved heart. 



Nevertheless mankind may be well divided into the selfish and 

 the social; that is, into those whose pleasures arise from grati- 

 fying their appetites, and those whose pleasures arise from their 

 sympathising with others. And according to the prevalence of 

 these opposing propensities we value or dislike the possessor of 

 them. 



In conducting the education of young people, it is a nice 

 matter to inspire them with so much benevolent sympathy, or 

 compassion, as may render them good and amiable; and yet not 

 so much as to make them unhappy at the sight of incurable dis- 

 tress. We should endeavour to make them alive to sympathize 

 with all remediable evils, and at the same time to arm them with 

 fortitude to bear the sight of such irremediable evils, as the acci- 

 dents of life must frequently present before their eyes. About 

 this I have treated more at large in a plan for the conduct of a 

 boarding-school for ladies, which I intend to publish in the 

 course of the next year. 



25. Educalio heroica. From the kinds and degrees of insani- 

 ties already enumerated, the reader will probably recollect many 



VOL. II. U U 



