when those of sober reason succeed, we smile at our folly, and seek for some more laudable demonstrations of joy. These effusions are always to be dreaded in mobs that are not thoroughly civilized, but among a people who do not connect the ideas of drunkenness and riot with those of exultation and gratitude, their expressions of satisfaction are peaceable, rational, and harmonious.

Nothing can make a man more thoroughly ridiculous, than extravagant expressions of joy, even on great occasions, but where the event is not of sufficient importance to interest the feelings of those around him, he becomes ludicrous and contemptible. The different methods in which coarse and polished people express their satisfaction, make one striking difference between them; those of the former are sensual, intemperate, and violent; those of the latter are refined, rational, and elegant: theirs is the mirth that "after no repenting brings," the lively dance, the cheerful song, the harp, the viol, and the tabret. The vulgar have no method of expressing their feelings on joyful occasions, but by drunkenness and noise, and for hours of mirth they suffer weeks of pain and repentance. The effusions of polished minds, at their own happiness, or that of their

friends, are shewn in benevolence to those around them and innocent expressions of festivity.

The feelings of indignation and resentment border nearly on each other, yet the former seem to be more personal than the latter, and are more nearly allied to virtue, for a generous indignation at the sight of meanness or villainy, is among the noblest of our feelings. To spurn at a base or contemptible action is the characteristic of a great and virtuous mind, exalted above the gross temptations of money or interest. To be indignant at the mean artifices of ambition, or the exulting confidence of successful villainy, is a feeling which does honor to our nature, and places us in the highest rank of human beings; yet to be easily excited to indignation on slight and frivolous grounds, exposes us to ridicule and contempt. The man who blusters when no one meant to offend him, and talks of resenting injuries which were never intended, may possess strong feelings of resentment and honor, but they will hardly preserve him from insult; other feelings in excess may excite our pity, but these can only raise a frown or a smile. The emotions of indignation against those by whom we have been injured, are difficult to be repressed; for self-defence

being the first impulse of our nature, we are irresistibly impelled to retaliate upon those who attack our person, our peace, or our property; yet the method in which we regulate our feelings upon such occasions, makes the great difference between men of savage and cultivated minds. With the former, the slightest injury is not only resented, but suffered to ripen into malice and revenge; their enemies are persecuted with the utmost implacable hatred, even unto death, and the injuries of the father are often handed down to the son, from generation to generation, till they become a kind of family inheritance; such direful feuds are found to exist not only in the earliest stages of the world, but even in those which are comparatively civilized. The resentments of polished and cultivated minds, even for the severest injuries, are never suffered to transgress the bounds of decorum, nor to disturb the peace of society. Good manners prevent them from noticing slight injuries or affronts; while religion, philosophy, and reason, forbid the exercise of resentment for severer ones beyond the disposition requisite to prevent future attacks, beyond a temperate appeal to law and justice. In such cases, a man of strong feelings will naturally be led to shew,

that he is not insensible of injury, but he will repress those feelings when they are likely to become passions; he will moderate his indignation and resentment, when he perceives them ripen into revenge; he will forbear to disturb the peace of his friends or society by any vio lent display of those emotions, which are, and ought to be, merely personal. To endeavour to make others a party in our quarrels and disputes till we find our enemies have done so before us to the injury of our character and interest, bespeaks a selfish, mean, and irritable disposition, totally incompatible either with the meekness of christianity, or the sober dignity of philosophy; it is the strongest evidence of an uncultivated and illiberal mind; it shews a want of education, want of good manners, and a want even of common decency; for, why should our feelings be the rule and standard of other peoples'? why should we expect them to take up our quarrels, in things that only interest ourselves? why should we disturb the peace of others with our grievances? Whoever, therefore, in such cases, suffers his resentment to get the better of his judgment, and makes the first appeal to the public, is answerable for all the ill consequences which must inevitably attend the excesses of indignation and irritability.

7

The lesser irritations of the feelings, which produce peevishness and petulance, ought equally to be guarded against; for, tho' not so extensively dangerous as those which grow up into malice and revenge, they tend to sour the comforts and disturb the harmony of society. Men of fine feelings are, in every rank of life, liable to be perpetually annoyed by indelicacy, coarseness, and violence; nay, they are even liable to be irritated by the apathy or want of similar feelings in those with whom they spend a great part of their time; they ought therefore, to be particularly careful to conceal, as far as possible, their resentment and disgust at what only concerns themselves. Things which give no pain to common men, are capable of striking to the heart of those who possess tender and refined feelings. A smile, a look, or a frown, may give a stab, on particular occasions, which hardly admits of palliation or remedy. No man can live long in the world, without meeting with ingratitude, neglect and cruelty; these misfortunes he should learn to bear with a manly spirit, and if he is conscious of not having deserved them, he should summon to his aid that self-importance which is our best support in all difficulties, and teaches us to despise our persecutors. Some men are apt to

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