298 
overcome, and unable to fecure human 
conduc againft crime. My obfervations 
upon children have ied me to an oppofite 
conclufion. It is certainly neceflary that 
reafon dawn before fympathy can operate; 
for beforea child fympathifes with the fen- 
fations of other beings, he muft be in- 
formed that fuch fenfations exift. It will 
require time before fuch information can 
be given toachild: but when given, I have 
no doubt that his fympathies are {ure, and 
that the work of ftifling them is a work 
of difficulty indeed. An increafing know- 
ledge will increafe the circle of our fym- 
pathies, which always keep pace with our 
Knowledge, and are only overcome by the 
pains attending want and defire, the force 
of oppofing prejudice, or the petrifying 
influence of fuperftition. 
Weare influenced in all things by our 
fympathies with the feelings and opinions 
of otheis. Other motives have over us a 
partial iufluence, this an univerfal one. 
It 1s this which induces us to decorate our 
perfons, build coftly edifices, keep {plendid 
eftablifhments, bear the 0, preflion of many 
fervants, acquire knowledge, encounter fa- 
tigue, brave danger and de!pife death! 
Our eariy days are delighted with the 
praifes of the dead, whole works we per- 
ufe with admiration ; we fympathile with 
the epinion of {uch as utter thele praifes, 
and thus is generated the univerfal paf- 
fion, unaccountable in every other way, 
the love of pofthumous fame. None of the 
antifocial paffions can boalt of a power 
Jike that of this fympathy, the origin and 
guide of aétion in man. Wedo not how- 
ever depend on this alone as the fecurity 
of morals. Man ts necefarily focial. Ob- 
vious and immediate felf-intereft will in 
moft cafes guard cther’s rights from vio- 
Jaticn, and fecure refpect to the focial re. 
Jaiions. Indeed the conduét of tyrants 
and of courtiers can only take place in a 
corrupt fate of feciety, in which their mo- 
nopolies fecure to them the fellowfhip and 
countenance of each other and their feek- 
ing fycophants. If men of common con- 
dition were to aét like thefe, they would 
be exiled from fociety, and denied the con- 
verfe of human kind ; an interdiét more fe- 
vere than any which attended the wort of- 
fenders of ancient Rome. The whole edu- 
cation of a defpot tends to flifle his natu- 
yal fympathies ; but thank heaven ! many 
of the human race can never be placed in 
fuch a fituation as makes him a monfter, 
On the queftion how often men confult ac- 
curately their intereft or their conduét, I 
may be permitted to offer a remark or two ; 
for the mutual\confideration of Mr, H, 
Mr. Rabinfon’s Reply to M. H. and Mr. Cogan. [Nov. 1, 
and Mr. Cogan, whofe letter is contained 
in your number for Oétober. If it be 
contended by either of thefe gentlemen, 
particularly by Mr. Cogan, that man al. 
ways purfues his greatelt inrereft without 
any deduction whatever for its being pre- 
fent or future, it muft be admitted that 
nine-tenths of mankind at leaft are not at 
all believers in religion or religious mo- 
tives, or rather that men univerfally are 
unbelievers in them, fince it is obvious that 
they do not always purfue the higheft vir- 
tue in conduét, and yet the highett virtue 
is adm.tted, by the religious fyftem which 
they profefs, to be their greateft imtereft. 
Accordingly it cught to be admitted that 
no change of the faith of a nation can 
greatly affect its morality, fince faith al- 
ready is without moral effect. The truth 
is plainly this ; man cannot by his coniti- 
tution give to prefent and to diftant gcod 
equal regard in his conduét. There isa 
mifery which he cannot long endure, what- 
ever were the future recompence which he 
was to have. The eye fees dimly a dif- 
tant profpect, and the mind faintly defires 
future and indefinite good. The grand 
charm. is wanting in profpects of future 
life. We cannot with effect realize there 
the fympathy of others. We may talk of 
God {miling, angels applauding, and men 
praifing us in another ftate, but the found 
paffeth away and is gone, we have never 
mixed in fuch a fcene, and with it we can- 
not fympathife. There is a philofophical 
fenfe indeed of the word intereit, in which 
if may be faid that man will purfue what 
he apprehends to be his greatelt intereft, 
but it is not true that he will ever appre- 
hend, through a long courfe of years, that 
gocd in a future Ife is his greateft interef ; 
neither is it true in this life, that man will 
always purfue, in any fenfe, his own 
felfifh intereft in oppofition to that of 
other beings, and without any regard to 
their interelt. If Chriftianity be a fyftem 
of mere felfifh calculation, it will be diffi- 
cult for Mr. Cogan to affign any reafon 
why our Creator fhould have dire&ted us to 
look from one world to another, to learn 
this art, and to obtain this felfifh compre. 
henfion of mind, as it appears that our ftage 
of exiltence might have been fully adequate 
to this end. Without attempting to re- 
vive Lord Shaftefbury’s obje&tions to this 
felfifh morality, 1t may not be improper 
to obferve, that it differs nothing in its 
nature from the purfuit, according to Mr. 
Cogan, of every man, as every man 
{till purfues his own intereft, Is it eafy 
then to fay, that one man is more vif- 
tuous than another; or are not, accor- 
ding 
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