1796.) 
Againft the truth of the fyfem, which 
teaches the abforption of all private affec- 
tion in univerfal benevolence, it is, furely, 
a ftrong prefumption, that it counteracts, 
fo effentially, our prefent habits and feel- 
ings, and could not be reduced to practice 
without new-modelling the world. This 
is not, indeed, a demonftrative proof of 
its falfehood. The world certainly wants 
new-modelling in many refpeéts. It 1s 
alfo certain, that univerfal benevolence ts 
‘a divine principle, never to be abandoned. 
Jf it can be proved, that the private af- 
feétions are inconfiftent with this princt- 
ple, they muft, at all events, be banifhed. 
But before: fuch a grand innovation is 
made, let it be well examined, whether 
the general good would not, onthe whole, 
be more promoted by retaining, than by 
difmiiling the private affeCtions? 
That this is, in'truth, the cafe, may be 
inferred with fome confidence from the 
confideration, that to banifh private affec- 
tion, would be to annihilate a large por- 
tion of that happinefs, which it is the ob- 
yeCt of univerfal benevolence to produce. 
It cannot be neceflary formally to prove, 
that the private affeétions are fources of 
enjoyment. Every one who has been a 
friend, a lover, a parent, knows this from 
the fure evidence of experience. If we, 
for amoment, fuppofe thefe affections to 
be annihilated, we deftroy the firft charm 
of life. Every happy family becomes an 
infipid, unanimated fociety ; and all hu- 
man beings are converted into a fet of fpe- 
culative calculators, on an ideal queftion 
of general happinefs, in which no indivi- 
dual any longer feels himfelf deeply inte- 
refted. The rays of affeétion, which, 
while they are concentrated in private re- 
lations, are warm and. vivid, duifufed 
through the univerfe, become too faint 
and feeble to be feen or felt. Happinefs 
is the child of feeling, not of reafon. 
Deprive men of the private affeétions, and 
you rob them of every thing which ‘gives 
life its zeft, which makes its labours plea- 
fant, and its amufements interefting ; you 
throw a general fhade over nature, which, 
In truth, converts it into ‘“ a drab-colour- 
ed creation.” 
It isa ftill ftronger proof that the pri- 
vate affeétions are not inconfiftent with 
univerfal benevolence, that the latter is in 
faét the offspring of the former. No man 
is born a philanthropift. That general af- 
feétion which embraces a whole fpecies of 
being, and even an univerfe, is not pro- 
duced but by a long procefs of affociation. 
An. infant, at firft, loves nothing but 
The Enquirer. No. 1V. 
273 
warmth and nourithment. — Shortly after 
its birth, its love for thefe is transferred, 
to the mother or nurfe, who fupplies them. 
By fimilar affociations, it gradually ac- 
quires an affection for other perfons, with 
in the fmall fphere of its experience. 
New fets of affociations afterwards produce 
the next clafs of affe€tions, thofe of friend- 
fhip and. love, and, in procefs of time, 
thofe feelings which belong'to the artificial 
arrangements of civil fociety. Before the 
proper period of their growth, it would 
be as fruitlefs to expeét them, as to look 
for harveft in fpring. A child may read 
a love tale, but he can have no conception 
of the fentiments conneéted with it. A 
4chool-boy, without fome premature ino- 
culation of political ideas, will be a ftran- 
ger to the clafs of affections belonging to 
the citizen. The peafant, who knows 
nothing of civic relations, tights, and 
duties, will feel little intereft in the grand 
events of king loms and ftarese The fame 
ing patriot, who pledges his fortune and 
life to his country—who waftes his time, 
and frets his temper, over the details of 
public occurrences—for want of compre- 
henfive views of the hiftory and prefent 
{tate of the world, and large conceptions 
of the nature of civil fociety, and the 
general rights of mankind, is wholly in- 
capable of interefting himfelf in the fate 
of men who inhabit diftant regions, and 
is an entire ftranger to the liberal ideas and 
generous fentiments cf univerfal philan- 
thropy. So natural is the tranfition, from 
the more confined to the more enlarged 
afteétions, that ic is commonly remarked 
of old bachelors, thatthey are lefs public- 
fpirited than married men ; and the reafon 
is obvious, for, who is fo likely to be ac- 
tive in beneficent fervices to the public, as 
he who is in the daily habit of exercifin; 
kind affections tn his domeftic circle ? The 
man whois obfervedto be remarkably defi- 
cient in the private affeCtions, is of courfe 
underftood to be incapable of univerfal be- 
nevolence. The truth is, the private af- 
fections are not to be confidered as the 
fcaifolding, by means of which the ftruc- 
ture of univerfal benevolence is raifed, 
but as the very materials of which it is 
compofed. Without the previous habits 
of the former, the latter could never be 
produced ; and when thefe habits, by the 
long procefs of affociation, have been efta- 
bliihed, they become fo incorporated into 
our nature, that it would be impofiible to 
feparate them. ‘The top of the climax of 
afteétion cannot be reached, without ade. 
vancing through each intermediate ftep ; 
IN in 2 nor 
