To attain to this envied fituation, the candidates for fortune too frequently abandon the paths of virtue; for unhappily, the road which leads to the one, and that which leads to the other, lie fometimes in very oppofite directions. But the ambitious man flatters himself that, in the fplendid fituation to which he advances, he will have fo many means of commanding the refpect and admiration of mankind, and will be enabled to act with fuch fuperior propriety and grace, that the luftre of his future conduct will entirely cover, or efface, the foulness of the fteps by which he arrived at that elevation. In many governments the candidates for the highest stations are above the law; and, if they can attain the object of their ambition, they have no fear of being called to account for the means by which they acquired it. They often endeavour, therefore, not only by fraud and falsehood, the ordinary and vulgar arts of intrigue and cabal; but fometimes by the perpetration of the moft enormous crimes, by murder and affaffination, by rebellion and civil war, to fupplant and de

ftroy

ftroy thofe who oppofe or ftand in the way of their greatness. They more frequently mifcarry than fucceed; and commonly gain nothing but the difgraceful punishment which is due to their crimes. But, though they should be fo lucky as to attain that wifhed-for greatnefs, they are always moft miferably disappointed in the happinefs which they expect to enjoy in it. It is not eafe or pleafure, but always honour, of one kind or another, though frequently an honour very ill understood, that the ambitious man really pursues. But the honour of his exalted ftation appears, both in his own eyes and in those of other people, polluted and defiled by the baseness of the means through which he rose to it Though by the profufion of every liberal expence; though by exceffive indulgence in every profligate pleasure, the wretched, but ufual, refource of ruined characters ; though by the hurry of public business, or by the prouder and more dazzling tumult of war, he may endeavour to efface, both from his own memory and from that of other people, the remembrance of what

he has done; that remembrance never fails to pursue him. He invokes in vain the dark and difmal powers of forgetfulness and oblivion. He remembers himself what he has done, and that remembrance tells him that other people muft likewife remember it. Amidst all the gawdy pomp of the most oftentatious greatness; amidst the venal and vile adulation of the great and of the learned; amidst the more innocent, though more foolish, acclamations of the common people; amidst all the pride of conqueft and the triumph of fuccefsful war, he is still fecretly purfued by the avenging furies of fhame and remorfe; and, while glory feems to furround him on all fides, he himself, in his own imagination, fees black and foul infamy faft pursuing him, and every moment ready to overtake him from behind. Even the great Cæfar, though he had the magnanimity to dismiss his guards, could not dismiss his fufpicions. The remembrance of Pharfalia still haunted and pursued him. When, at the request of the fenate, he had the generofity to pardon Marcellus, he told that affembly, that

he

1

he was not unaware of the designs which were carrying on against his life; but that, as he had lived long enough both for nature and for glory, he was contented to die, and therefore defpifed all confpiracies. He had, perhaps, lived long enough for nature. But the man who felt himself the object of fuch deadly refentment, from those whose favour he wished to gain, and whom he ftill wifhed to confider as his friends, had certainly lived too long for real glory; or for all the happiness which he could ever hope to enjoy in the love and efteem of his equals.

THE

THEORY

OF

MORAL SENTIMENTS.

PART II.

Of MERIT and DEMERIT; or, of the Objects of REWARD and PUNISHMENT.

Confifting of Three Sections.

SECTION I.

Of the SENSE of MERIT and DEMERIT.

T

INTRODUCTION.

HERE is another fet of qualities afcribed to the actions and conduct of mankind, diftinct from their propriety or impropriety, their decency or ungracefulness,