274 
If our firft obligation be the purfuit of 
the common gocd, whatever in the final 
Tefult interferes with this purfuit, muft 
be wrong. No maa can have a right to 
purchafe perfonal enjoyment at the ex- 
pence of a fingle grain, in the turnof the 
balance, agairit-the good of the whole. 
No individual member of -a family has 
a right to purchafe his own gratification, 
at the expence of the happineis of any of 
his relations; no family, no province, no 
nation, has aright to enrich or aggrandize 
itfelf at the expence of the happinefs of 
other ‘families, other provinces, other na- 
tions. The plain old trading maxim, “ve 
and let hve, fhould be followed in all re- 
Jations of fociety, and through all claffes 
of reciprocally connected and dependent 
beings. 
The obligation to univerfal benevolence, 
is admitted in its full extent. But does it 
follow, that private affe€tions ought to be 
loft in general philanthropy ? Is it incon- 
fiftent with the good will and the fervice 
T owe to my fpecies, to indulge the warm 
feelings of domeftic affection; to give up 
my heart with generous ardour to a tried 
and faithful friend ; to cherifh fentiments 
of gratitude towards the man who has 
done me a kindnefs; to feel a peculiar 
attachment to the civil, community to 
which I belong, and in which I enjoy, in 
common with my fellow citizens, the blefi- 
ings of civil freedom ? In order to be a 
philanthropift, mut I ceafe to be a father, 
a friend, a patriot? 
—‘* Yes,” replies the cool: calculator, 
upon the fyftem of univerfal benevolence, 
é¢ the facrifice is abfolutely neceflary. In 
the exact proportion in which you fuffer 
any private affeCtion to prevail, univertal 
benevolence muft be impaired. You can- 
not give the members of your own family, 
your own neighbourhood, or your own 
kingdom, a larger fhare of your affection, 
than belongs to the reft of your fpecies, 
without proportionally biafling your judg- 
ment, and mifleading your actions. If 
your mind be under the influence of any 
private affeftion, it will not be in a proper 
fiate to weigh the merits of any cafe, 
which comes before you in the equal fcale 
of general benevolence : for thefe affec- 
tions neceflarily imply a preference of one 
perfon to another, from other confidera- 
tions than thofe of his higher powers of 
enjoyment, and capacity for ufefulnets.”— 
According to this method of reafoning, 
every kind and degree of private affec- 
tion is a weaknefs, and in iome fort a 
crime, as it ob truéts the natural operation 
of general philanthropy; and the perfec- 
The Engquirers No. IV. 
[ May 
tion of wifdom and virtue, is, to admit 
into the foul no other feeling, than the 
fublime fentiment of univerfal love ; and 
to employ life in noother occupation, than 
in devifing and executing plans of univer- 
fal happinefs. 
If this fyftem were adopted, it is very 
evident, that the prefent order of fociety 
muft be entirely overturned. Patriotic 
ardour, in defending the common rights, 
and promoting the common interefts of 
our country, as fuch, muft no longer be 
indulged. Local attachments, arifing from 
voluntary affociations, religious, political, 
or commercial, muft be broken; the kind 
regard which 1s generated among neigh- 
bours and acquaintance, by the intercourfes 
of civility and hofpitality, muft be fup- 
preffed ; above all, the tender affeétions of 
friendfhip and confanguinity muft be ri- 
goroufly fubdued; becaufe a2 man who 
loves any individual too much, muft love 
all the world too little. All that variety 
of fentiments and paffions, which at pre- 
fent renders human fociety fo intereftmg, 
and like a happy combination of notes in. 
mufic, produces an enchanting harmony, — 
muft be reduced to the duil monotony of 
one tranquil fentiment. Every man, itis 
true, would meet his neighbour with the 
mild afpeét of calm philofophy, and with 
the piacid fmile of perfect benevolence; 
but no eye muft be feen {parkling with 
rapture, or melting with tendernefs; no 
tongue muft utter words of Kindnefs, 
which have not firft been exaétly meafured 
on the icale of univerfal benevolence. In 
fhort, the moral world would become one 
flat unvaried fcene, refembling the alpect 
which the natural world would affume, 
were all its mountains and valleys level- 
led, and its whole furface converted inta 
one {mooth and graffy plain. 
The loves and the graces muft, on this ~ 
fuppefition, all be banifhed. The lover's 
fancy muft no longer deek his miftrefs 
with imaginary charms, left he fhould be- 
ftow upon her more affeétion than is her 
due. Even the mother muft no longer be 
fupported, under the pains and folicitudes 
infeparable from the maternal relation, by 
fond affeétion, but by the cool recolleétion 
of the fervice fhe is rendering to the world, 
in producing, nurfing, and educating a 
rational being. If an unlucky moment 
fhould occur, in which the life of her own 
child, and that of another perfon, which 
promifes greater benefit to fociety, come 
into competition, maternal affection muft- 
give way to univerfal benevolence; fhe 
mutt, in fuch a cafe, fave her neighbour's 
child from drowning, rather than her own. 
- Againgk 
