1809.) 
grimage of life, where they are necessa- 
rily associated with people_ of various 
Characters, different tastes, and opposite 
pursuits, Subject as we areto the same 
vicissitudes and evils, nothing can render 
them supportable, or the road comfort- 
able, but conciliating the favourvof our 
fellow-travellers.. Some there are, who 
Jove to jostle and circumvent each other 
throughout the journey; but they are 
always known and avoided before the 
end of it, atid miss akke enjoyment,and 
success. .~ 
Nothing (says an eminent writer) so 
clearly proves the excellence of good- 
nature, as that it disposes us to bear with 
those who are destitute of every other. 
Though philanthropy and penetration 
have been supposed in their very naturé 
“to be things incompatible, on aclose in- 
spection they will be found inseparably 
united. It is because we only see par- 
tually, that we do not bear patiently, and 
iiterpret kindly. Who makes so many al- 
lowances tur the ignorant as the wise? 
who feels so much pity for the evil, as 
the good ? and the great advocate for the 
humau race, is the Being of Perfection, 
By penetration, is commonly under- 
stood a quick-sightedness into the faults 
of our fellow-creatures; but_this is only 
a part, the easiest and the worst part, of 
sagacity. To4liscern a spark of rafical 
worth, obscured as it may be by many 
errors, todo homage to upright principle 
accompanied with bigotry, to espy the 
modest virtues in the shade where slander 
_or malevolence have placed them ;—this 
is penetration ; not to discover (what is 
generally jobvious encugh) the. predo-— 
minant failing in a character; though, 
even in thisrespect, thé censcrious judge 
inaccurately, as the eye which has a 
“beam in it, sees the mote double, 
Far be it from the moralist to palliate 
vice; and, in this age, it is the virtuous 
who need an advocate: we are accus- 
tomed to hear the softest appellations 
given to gross enormities, and to see the 
most splendid colourings bestowed on 
meretricious and dishonourable conduct, 
There was a time in England, when 
the novelist and the poet always repre- 
sented their heroes virtuous, and engaged 
our interest for a. worthy character ; ‘but 
now, even the drama presents its chief 
personage destitute of every excellence ; 
and with no charm but allurement, en- 
deavours to Inspire not only our pity, but 
our admiration, for some adultress, or 
spendthrift, To be pleased with such a 
Subversion of right and wrong, is not 
war, and their enemies m peace, 
Exiracts from the Journal of a Reflecior. 2713 
good-nature, but depraved principle, and ~ 
comes under the denomination of positive 
evil. 
Cruelly. 
“ Pity (says Johnson) is not natural te 
man: children are cruel; savages are 
cruel ; pity is acquired and improved by 
the cultivation of reason: we may have 
uneasy sensations from seeing a creature 
in distress, without pity ; but we have not 
pity, unless we wish to relieve it. When 
I am on my way to dine with a friend, 
and, fiuding it late, have bid the coach. _ 
man make haste; if L happen to attend 
when he whips his horses, 1 may feel uns 
pleasantly that the animais are put to. 
pain, but I do not wish him to desist; no, 
I bid him drive on.” If pity imply a 
wish to relieve, cruelty must imply a wish 
to torture; unfeelingness is not cruelty, 
though its effects be pain; savages may 
infiict pain from want of thought, bu 
they are only cruel when they seek to 
torment, as they do their prisoners in 
Dr. 
Johnson was cruel, if the anguish of 
the horses was present to his inind, and 
he wished the driver to inflict it; though 
the beasts would have suffered as much 
from the lash, had it never come into his 
mind; but then, like, savages and chile 
dren, he would not have. been cruel, but 
thoughtless. 
Pity is not acquired by the cultivation 
of reason, or the Stoics would have been 
the most compassionate persons in the 
world, itis true they were never cruel, 
bus they did not pity; nay, 11 was con- 
sidered as a weakness, and wouid have 
excluded any disciple from their come 
munity. Reason iaugnt them to-endure, 
and to relieve, but uct to feel, In the 
passions, not the ratiocinative faculty, we 
find the seeds of pity, cruelty, and all 
other emotions; and as these are con. 
troled, or indulged, man becomes a 
tyrant, or benefactor, to his species. 
Their total extinction (which was the 
professed ain of the Stoic) prevented 
him no less from being injurious thaa 
somal. He never would have come. 
mauded the coachman to drive on, if the 
animals were to be tormented by i¢: but 
neither would he have entered a carviage, 
or feasted with a friend. ‘This sect, of 
which Epictetus was the glory, notwiths 
standing some of its extravagancies, was 
the best of its time: the Stuics rejected 
the idea of Fate, independent of events 
appointed by the councils of God: they 
zealously maintained the ductrine of a 
particular Providence, the somupasence 
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