able quality, yet it never is considered as one either of the most endearing or of the most ennobling of the virtues. It commands a certain cold esteem, but seems not entitled to any very ardent love or admiration.

Wise and judicious conduct, when directed to greater and nobler purposes than the care of the health, the fortune, the rank, and reputation, of the individual, is frequently and very properly called Prudence. We talk of the prudence of the great general, of the great statesman, of the great legislator. Prudence is, in all these cases, combined with many greater and more splendid virtues; with valour, with extensive and strong benevolence, with a sacred regard to the rules of justice, and all these supported by a proper degree of self-command. This superior prudence, when carried to the highest degree of perfection, necessarily supposes the art, the talent, and the habit or disposition of acting with the most perfect propriety in every possible circumstance and situation. It necessarily supposes the utmost perfection of all the intellectual and of all the moral virtues. It is the best head joined to the best heart. It is the most perfect wisdom combined with the most perfect virtue. It constitutes very nearly the character of the Academical or Peripatetic sage, as the inferior prudence does that of the Epicurean.

Mere imprudence, or the mere want of the capacity to take care of one's self, is, with the generous and humane, the object of compassion; with those of less delicate sentiments, of neglect, or, at worst, of contempt, but never of hatred or indignation. When combined with other vices, however, it aggravates in the highest degree the infamy and disgrace which would otherwise attend them. The artful knave, whose dexterity and address exempt him, though not from strong suspicions, yet from punishment or distinct detection, is too often received in the world with

an indulgence which he by no means deserves. The awkward and foolish one, who, for want of this dexterity and address, is convicted and brought to punishment, is the object of universal hatred, contempt, and derision. In countries where great crimes frequently pass unpunished, the most atrocious actions become almost familiar, and cease to impress the people with that horror which is universally felt in countries where an exact administration of justice takes place. The injustice is the same in both countries; but the imprudence is often very different. In the latter, great crimes are evidently great follies. In the former, they are not always considered as such. In Italy, during the greater part of the sixteenth century, assassinations, murders, and even murders under trust, seem to have been almost familiar among the superior ranks of people. Cæsar Borgia invited four of the little princes in his neighbourhood, who all possessed little sovereignties, and commanded little armies of their own, to a friendly conference at Senigaglia, where, as soon as they arrived, he put them all to death. This infamous action, though certainly not approved of even in that age of crimes, seems to have contributed very little to the discredit, and not in the least to the ruin, of the perpetrator. That ruin happened a few years after, from causes altogether disconnected with this crime. Machiavel-not indeed a man of the nicest morality even for his own times-was resident, as minister from the republic of Florence, at the court of Cæsar Borgia, when this crime was committed. He gives a very particular account of it, and in that pure, elegant, and simple language which distinguishes all his writings: he talks of it very coolly; is pleased with the address with which Cæsar Borgia conducted it; has much contempt for the dupery and weakness of the sufferers; but no compassion for their miserable and untimely death; and no sort of indignation at the cruelty and falsehood of their murderer. The violence and injustice of great conquerors are often regarded with foolish wonder

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and admiration; those of petty thieves, robbers derers, with contempt, hatred, and even horro occasions. The former, though they are a hun more mischievous and destructive, yet, when they often pass for deeds of the most heroic ma The latter are always viewed with hatred and a the follies as well as the crimes of the lowes worthless of mankind. The injustice of the for tainly, at least, as great as that of the latter; b and imprudence are not near so great. Av worthless man of parts often goes through the much more credit than he deserves. A wicked less fool appears always of all mortals the mo as well as the most contemptible. As prudence with other virtues, constitutes the noblest, so in combined with other vices, constitutes the vil characters.

SECTION II.

OF THE CHARACTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL, SO FAR AS IT

CAN AFFECT THE HAPPINESS OF OTHER PEOPLE.

INTRODUCTION.

THE character of every individual, so far as it can affect the happiness of other people, must do so by its disposition either to hurt or to benefit them.

Proper resentment for injustice attempted, or actually committed, is the only motive which, in the eyes of the impartial spectator, can justify our hurting or disturbing, in any respect, the happiness of our neighbour. To do so from any other motive is itself a violation of the laws of justice, which force ought to be employed either to restrain or to punish. The wisdom of every state or commonwealth endeavours, as well as it can, to employ the force of the society to restrain those who are subject to its authority from hurting or disturbing the happiness of one another. The rules which it establishes for this purpose constitute the civil and criminal law of each particular state or country. The principles upon which those rules either are or ought to be founded, are the subject of a particular science, of all sciences by far the most important, but hitherto, perhaps, the least cultivated-that of natural jurisprudence; concerning which it belongs not to our present subject to enter into any detail. A sacred and religious regard not to hurt or distub, in any respect, the happiness of our neighbour,

even in those cases where no law can properly p constitutes the character of the perfectly innoce man; a character which, when carried to a certa of attention, is always highly respectable and rable for its own sake, and can scarce ever fail to panied with many other virtues-with great feelin people, with great humanity and great benevole a character sufficiently understood, and requires explanation. In the present section I shall only to explain the foundation of that order which Na to have traced out for the distribution of our g or for the direction and employment of our ve powers of beneficence; first, towards individ secondly, towards societies.

The same unerring wisdom, it will be found, v lates every other part of her conduct, directs, in too, the order of her recommendations; which stronger or weaker in proportion as our beneficer or less necessary, or can be more or less useful.