APPENDIX. 455 



self-love could not prevail without producing much partial 

 evil : and to prevent this passion from degenerating into the 

 odious vice of selfishness,* to make us sympathize in the 

 pains and pleasures of our fellow-creatures, and feel the 

 same kind of interest in their happiness and misery as in 

 our own, though diminished in degree; to prompt us often 

 to put ourselves in their place, that we may understand 

 their wants, acknowledge their rights and do them good as 

 we have opportunity ; and to remind us continually, that 

 even the passion which urges us to procure plenty for our- 

 selves was not implanted in us for our own exclusive ad- 

 vantage, but as the means of procuring the greatest plenty 

 for all; these appear to be the objects and offices of benevo- 

 lence. In every situation of life there is ample room for 

 the exercise of this virtue ; and as each individual rises in 

 society, as he advances in knowledge and excellence, as his 

 power of doing good to others becomes greater, and the 

 necessary attention to his own wants le«s, it will naturally 

 come in for an increasing share among his constant motives 

 of action. In situations of high trust and infiuence it ought 

 to have a very large share, and in all public institutions it 

 should be the great moving principle. Though we have 

 often reason to fear that our benevolence may not take the 

 most beneficial direction, we need never apprehend that 

 there will be too much of it in society. The foundations 

 of that passion on which our preservation depends, are fixed 

 so deeply in our nature, that no reasonings or addresses to 

 our feelings can essentially disturb it. It is just therefore 

 and proper that all the positive precepts should be on the 

 side of the weaker impulse; and we may safely endeavour 

 to increase and extend its influence as much as we are able, 

 if at the same time we are constantly on the watch, to pre- 

 vent the evil which may arise from its misapplication. 



The law, which in this country entitles the poor to re- 

 lief, is undoubtedly diflferent from a full acknowledgment of 

 the natural right; and from this difference, and the many 

 counteracting causes that arise from the mode of its execu- 

 tion, it will not of course be attended with the same conse- 



• It seems proper to make a decided distinction between self-love and selfish- 

 ness, between that passion, which under proper regulaiioiis is the source of all 

 honourable industry, and of all the necessaries and conveniences of life, and 

 the same passion pushed to excess, when it becomes useless and disgusting, 

 and consequently vicious. 



