454 APPENDIX. 



-which is apparent iu all his works, has not left this conclu- 

 sion to the cold and speculative consideration of general 

 ' consequences. By making the passion of self-love beyond 

 comparison stronger than the passion of benevolence, he 

 has at once impelled us to that line of conduct, which is 

 essential to the preservation of the human race. If all that 

 might be born could be adequately supplied, we cannot 

 doubt, that he would have made the desire of giving to 

 others as ardent as that of supplying ourselves. But since, 

 under the present constitution of things, this is not so, he 

 has enjoined every man to pursue, as his primary object, 

 his own safety and happiness, and the safety and happi- 

 ness of those immediately connected with him ; and it is 

 highly instructive to observe that, in proportion as the 

 sphere contracts and the power of giving effectual assistance 

 increases, the desire increases at the same time. In the 

 case of children, who have certainly a claim of right to the 

 support and protection of their parents, we generally find 

 parental aft'ection nearly as strong as self-love : and except 

 m a few anomalous cases, the last morsel will be divided 

 into equal shares. 



By this wise provision the most ignorant are led to pro- 

 mote the general happiness, an end which they would have 

 totally failed to attain, if the moving principle of their con- 

 duct had been benevolence.* Benevolence indeed, as the 

 great and constant source of action, would require the most 

 perfect knowledge of causes and effects, and therefore can 

 only be the attribute of the Deity. In a being so short- 

 sighted as man, it would lead into the grossest errors, and 

 soon transform the fair and cultivated soil of civilized so- 

 ciety into a dreary scene of want and confusion. 



But though benevolence cannot in the present state of our 

 being be the great moving principle of human actions, yet, as 

 the kind corrector of the evils arising from the other stronger 

 passion, it is essential to human happiness; it is the balm 

 and consolation and grace of human life, the source of our 

 noblest efforts in the cause of virtue, and of our purest and 

 most refined pleasures. Conformably to that system of general 

 laws, according to which the Supreme Being appears with 

 very few exceptions to act, a passion so strong and general as 



* In saying tbis let me not be supposed (o give the sligbtest sanction to the 

 system of morals ineulcated in the Fabb of the Bees, a system which I consider 

 as iibsoliitely false, and diieclly contrary to the just definition of virtue. The 

 great art of Dr. Mandeville consisted in misnomers. 



