210 
large communities, and forego his eafe, and 
hazard his fafety, to promote their advan- 
tage; becaufe he is capable of perfonify- 
ing the ideas of country and mankind, and 
identifying himfelf with the human race ; 
becaufe he is fenfible of the exalted piea- 
fure of being admired and beloved when 
living, and can affociate thefe feelings to 
his memory after death. If to this fund 
for ufeful and generous action be added 
the capacity of receiving pure and inex- 
hauftible delight from the exertion of in- 
‘telle&t, what an idea muft be formed of 
the nature and condition of man, and how 
fitted muft he feem to occupy the elevated 
rank affigned him in this vifible fyftem of 
things! 
But it is alfo an invariable law of na- 
ture, that upon every advantage fhould be 
entailed, as it were, an appropriate in- 
convenience—upon every good fhould be 
quartered its evil. As in the tropical cli- 
mates the fame fun that nourifhes a lux- 
uriance of the richeft vegetation, and pro- 
vides abundance for all the wants of man, 
fills the air and earth with noxious infeéts, 
and exhales peftilence from the ftagnant 
waters; fo the noble powers beftowed 
upon the human race, and the multipli- 
city of ftrong motives perpetually roufing 
thefe powers to aétion, render its indivi- 
duals more liable to err in the purfuit of 
their own happinefs, and more capable of 
infliiéting mifchiefs wpon each other. The 
keen relifh for varied gratification ftimu- 
ates the intemperance of man, and admi- 
nifters food for infatiable cupidity. His 
love of power, of honour, of fame, in- 
volves him in endlefs rivalries and inter- 
ferences. Even thofe attachments which 
take him in fome meafure out of felf, and 
engage him in the interefts of kindred, par- 
ty, and country, enlarge the fphere of his 
contention, and precipitate him againft 
whole mafles of fellow-men, with whom, 
in a private capacity, he could not come 
into contaét. Political inftitutions, and 
forms of government, which in one view 
are admirable contrivances for reftraining 
the hurtful paffions of mankind, in an- 
other, by the creation of a multiplicity of 
new relations and remote interefts, are 
caufes of unthought-of and interminable 
quarrels. Without experience, how could 
it be conceived that a hundred thoufand 
human beings could, by any force, be fet 
in array againft another hundred thoufand, 
with the mutual purpofe of deftruction, 
when the fubject of the difpute perhaps 
concerned not a fingle perfon on either 
fide, and even their paffions took fo little 
part in their hoftility, that the figning of 
The Enquirer, No. XXII. 
[O@ober 1, 
a piece of paper might immediately con- 
vert-them all into friends and allies? If 
one fwarm of bees engages in battle with 
another, it is for the poffeffion of the hive 
and honey; and thus the warlike tribes 
of men which iffued from the great north- 
ern hive, were wont to contend for the oc- 
cupation of more fertile lands in a better 
climate than their own. But the fruits of 
victory now belong only to the few, who, 
fitting quiet at home, direét this chefs- 
play for their amufement or emolument. 
To fuch civilized gamefters, however, lefs 
than the extermination of an adverlary 
will fuffice; and a few bold moves may 
decide the conteft with little comparative 
lofs. 
A circumftance which feems moft re- 
markably to violate the analogy »etween 
the humanand brutal nature, is the amazing 
difference of perfection attained by different 
individuals in the former, while thole of 
the latter, in their feveral {pecies, appear 
to be nearly upon the fame level. Hence 
it has been inferred, that a very {mall 
part of mankind are what their creator in- 
tended they fhould be; and confequenily, 
that a great future melioration in the mafs 
is to be expected. But does not the na- 
ture of a being, capable, indeed, of high 
intellectual attainments, yet at the fame 
time fubjected to numerous corporeal 
wants and neceffities, which are not to be 
fupplied without care and toil, render 
fuch a difference unavoidable; and is it 
not manifeftly impoffible that the highly 
cultivated part fhould ever be more than 
a {mall minority? The leifure they enjoy, 
and all the advantage of books, inftru- 
ments, and other things neceflary to the 
purfuit of literature, are at the expence of 
the majority, whofe bodily labours are by 
fo much the more augmented, as a higher 
degree of cultivation augments the de- 
mands of thofe who can compel their fer- 
vices. Of this confequence fome philofo- 
phers have been fo fenfible, that they have~ 
condemned not only the refinements of 
fenfual pleafure, but even thofe mental lux- 
uries which require a large apparatus 5 
and they have looked for the perfe&tion of 
human nature in that ftate of fimplicity 
and equality which attends the rude be- 
ginnings of fociety. Though I by no 
means agree with them in their eftimate 
of the real happinefs of man, and think it 
a timid and narrow policy to acquiefce in 
impeitection through fear of the effects of 
a full exertion of the powers beftowed upon 
us; yet the general fact, that one part of 
mankind muft be depreffed proportionably 
to the exaltation of the other, I regard as 
indil- 

