I.

or more public fpirit, than the celebrated legif. c HA P. lator of Mufcovy? The focial and well-natured James the Firft of Great Britain feems, on the contrary, to have had scarce any paffion, either for the glory or the intereft of his country. Would you awaken the industry of the man who feems almoft dead to ambition, it will often be to no purpose to defcribe to him the happiness of the rich and the great; to tell him that they are generally sheltered from the fun and the rain, that they are feldom hungry, that they are feldom cold, and that they are rarely expofed to wearinefs, or to want of any kind. The moft eloquent exhortation of this kind will have little effect upon him. If you would hope to fucceed, you muft defcribe to him the conveniency and arrangement of the different apartments in their palaces; you must explain to him the propriety of their equipages, and point out to him the number, the order, and the dif ferent offices of all their attendants. If any thing is capable of making impreffion upon him, this will. Yet all these things tend only to keep off the fun and the rain, to fave them from hunger and cold, from want and wearinefs. In the fame manner, if you would implant public virtue in the breaft of him who feems heedlefs of the intereft of his country, it will often be to no purpose to tell him, what fuperior advantages the fubjects of a well-governed ftate enjoy; that they are better lodged, that they are better clothed, that they are better fed. Thefe confiderations will commonly make no great impreffion.

VOL. I.

Y

PART preffion. You will be more likely to perfuade, IV. if you defcribe the great fyftem of public police

which procures thefe advantages, if you explain the connexions and dependencies of its several parts, their mutual fubordination to one another, and their general fubferviency to the happiness of the fociety: if you show how this system might be introduced into his own country, what it is that hinders it from taking place there at prefent, how thofe obftructions might be removed, and all the feveral wheels of the machine of government be made to move with more harmony and fmoothnefs, without grating upon one another, or mutually retarding one another's motions. It is fcarce poffible that a man should liften to a difcourfe of this kind, and not feel himself animated to fome degree of public fpirit. He will, at least for the moment, feel fome defire to remove those obstructions, and to put into motion fo beautiful and fo orderly a machine. Nothing tends fo much to promote public fpirit as the ftudy of politics, of the feveral fyftems of civil government, their advantages and difadvantages, of the conftitution of our own country, its fituation, and intereft with regard to foreign nations, its commerce, its defence, the disadvantages it labours under, the dangers to which it may be exposed, how to remove the one, and how to guard against the other. Upon this account political difquifi. tions, if juft, and reasonable, and practicable, are of all the works of fpeculation the most ufeful. Even the weakest and the worst of them

are

I.

are not altogether without their utility. They CHA P. serve at least to animate the public paffions of men, and rouse them to feek out the means of promoting the happiness of the fociety.

CHAP. II.

Of the beauty which the appearance of Utility bestows upon the characters and actions of men ; and how far the perception of this beauty may be regarded as one of the original principles of approbation.

THE

II.

HE characters of men, as well as the con- CHA P. trivances of art, or the inftitutions of civil government, may be fitted either to promote or to disturb the happiness both of the individual and of the fociety. The prudent, the equitable, the active, refolute, and fober character promifes profperity and fatisfaction, both to the perfon himself and to every one connected with him. The rash, the infolent, the flothful, effeminate, and voluptuous, on the contrary, forebodes ruin to the individual, and misfortune to all who have any thing to do with him. The firft turn of mind has at least all the beauty which can belong to the moft perfect machine that was ever invented for promoting the moft agreeable purpofe: and the fecond, all the deformity of the most awkward and clumfy contrivance.

Y 2

IV.

PART trivance. What inftitution of government could tend fo much to promote the happiness of mankind as the general prevalence of wisdom and virtue? All government is but an imperfect remedy for the deficiency of these. Whatever beauty, therefore, can belong to ment upon account of its utility, fuperior degree belong to thefe. trary, what civil policy can be fo deftructive as the vices of men? The fatal effects of bad government arife from nothing, but that it does not fufficiently guard against the mifchiefs which human wickedness gives occafion

to.

civil governmuft in a far On the conruinous and

This beauty and deformity which characters appear to derive from their usefulness or inconveniency, are apt to ftrike, in a peculiar manner, thofe who confider, in an abftract and philofophical light, the actions and conduct of mankind. When a philofopher goes to examine why humanity is approved of, or cruelty condemned, he does not always form to himself, in a very clear and diftinct manner, the conception of any one particular action either of cruelty or of humanity, but is commonly contented with the vague and indeterminate idea which the general names of thofe qualities fuggeft to him. But it is in particular inftances only that the propriety or impropriety, the merit or demerit of actions is very obvious and difcernible. It is only when particular examples are given that we perceive diftinctly either the concord or dif agreement between our own affections and thofe

of

II.

of the agent, or feel a focial gratitude arife CHAP.. towards him in the one cafe, or a fympathetic refentment in the other. When we confider: virtue and vice in an abftract and general manner, the qualities by which they excite thefe feveral fentiments feem in a great measure to disappear, and the fentiments themfelves become lefs obvious and difcernible. On the contrary, the happy effects of the one and the fatal confequences of the other seem then to rife up to the view, and as it were to ftand out and distinguish themselves from all the other qualities of either.

The fame ingenious and agreeable author who firft explained why utility pleafes, has been fo ftruck with this view of things, as to refolve our whole approbation of virtue into a perception of this species of beauty which refults from the appearance of utility. No qualities of the mind, he obferves, are approved of as virtuous, but fuch as are useful or agreeable either to the person himself or to others; and no qualities are difapproved of as vicious but fuch as have a contrary tendency. And Nature, indeed, feems to have fo happily adjufted our fentiments of approbation and difapprobation, to the conveniency both of the individual and of the fociety, that after the stricteft examination it will be found, I believe, that this is univerfally the cafe. But ftill I affirm, that it is not the view of this utility or hurtfulness which is either the firft or principal fource of our approbation and difapprobation. Thefe fentiments are no doubt enhanced and enlivened by the perception of the beauty or deY 3 formity