42 
lavater’s 
ing to propagate the fhocking idea, — that all men 
are born wicked and cruel : fo that force alone bein«^ 
the rule of power which made the firft law, they 
partake equally of a longing defire to poffefs the 
fame objefts, and confequently are in a Hate of 
warfare from their infancy to the grave. 
Hence arifes the perpetual conteft that fpreads 
fuch havock and defolation upon the earth. 
Another modern philofopher, Helvetius, after 
having confuted thefe doffrines with folid argu- 
ments, has endeavoured to hit the right medium 
between two different fyftems, without indulging 
the fpirit of contradiffion. He maintains, that a 
child comes upon the ftage of life neither good nor 
bad, but becomes either according to events From 
the moment when he breaks out of his mother’s 
womb he opens the gates of creation, and enters 
without thofe ideas and paffions, the mere efre6fs, 
or impreffions, of his exiftence. 
Agreeably to this way of arguing, felf-love, the 
ftrongeft leading principle, confidered as innate, is 
only a main-fpring of aftion, acquired from expe- 
rience and recolleftion of pain or pleafure, from 
the earlieft period, added to the fruits of refle61ion 
at a riper age, when we come to contemplate and 
weigh the whole order of things in the fcale of 
Reafon. 
Section 
