+

they themselves cannot help), fhould not, upon that account, fuffer or

for the guilty, is one of the

be punished
plaineft and

In the most

moft obvious rules of juftice. unjuft war, however, it is commonly the fovereign or the rulers only who are guilty. The fubjects are almost always perfectly innocent. Whenever it fuits the conveniency of a public enemy, however, the goods of the peaceable citizens are feized both at land and at fea; their lands are laid wafte, their houses are burnt, and they themselves, if they prefume to make any refiftance, are murdered or led into captivity; and all this in the most perfect conformity to what are called the laws of nations.

The animofity of hoftile factions, whether civil or ecclefiaftical, is often ftill more furious than that of hoftile nations; and their conduct towards one another is often still more atrocious. What may be called the laws of faction have often been laid down by grave authors with ftill lefs regard to the rules of juftice than what are called the laws +. Are not nations & their rulers mutually accountable for wake other's faults? Why them are countable for the dations of highwaymen ? use it would tempt rogues

це

acc

themselves.

laws of nations.

The moft ferocious patriot never ftated it as a ferious question, Whether faith ought to be kept with public enemies?Whether faith ought to be kept with rebels? Whether faith ought to be kept with heretics? are queftions which have been often furiously agitated by cele brated doctors both civil and ecclefiaftical. It is needless to obferve, I prefume, that both rebels and heretics are thofe unlucky perfons, who, when things have come to a certain degree of violence, have the miffortune to be of the weaker party. In a nation distracted by faction, there are, no doubt, always a few, though commonly but a very few, who preferve their judgement untainted by the general contagion. They feldom amount to more than, here and there, a folitary individual, without any influence, excluded, by his own candour, from the confidence of either party, and who, though he may be one of the wifeft, is neceffarily, upon that very account, one of the most infignificant mën in the fociety. All fuch people are held in contempt and derifion, frequently in deteftation,

VOL. I.

C C

testation, by the furious zealots of both parties. A true party-man hates and despises candour; and, in reality, there is no vice which could fo effectually difqualify him for the trade of a party-man as that fingle virtue. The real, revered, and impartial spectator, therefore, is, upon no occafion, at a greater diftance than amidft the violence and rage of contending parties. To them, it may be faid, that fuch a fpectator fcarce exifts any where in the univerfe. Even to the great Judge of the univerfe, they impute all their own prejudices, and often view that Divine Being as animated by all their own vindictive and implacable paffions. Of all the corrupters of moral sentiments, therefore, faction and fanaticism have always been by far the greateft.

Concerning the fubject of felf-command, I fhall only observe further, that our admiration for the man who, under the heaviest and most unexpected misfortunes, continues to behave with fortitude and firmnefs, always fuppofes that his fenfibility to thofe

thofe misfortunes is very great, and fuch as it requires a very great effort to conquer or command. The man who was altogether infenfible to bodily pain, could deserve no applause from enduring the torture with the most perfect patience and equanimity. The man who had been created without the natural fear of death, could claim no merit from preserving his coolness and presence of mind in the midst of the moft dreadful dangers. It is one of the extravagancies of Seneca, that the Stoical wife man was, in this refpect, fuperior even to a God; that the fecurity of the God was altogether the benefit of nature, which had exempted him from fuffering; but that the security of the wife man was his own benefit, and derived altogether from himself and from his own exertions.

The fenfibility of fome men, however, to fome of the objects which immediately affect themselves, is fometimes fo ftrong as to render all felf-command impoffible. No fense of honour can control the fears of the man who is weak enough to faint, or

to fall into convulfions, upon the approach of danger. Whether fuch weakness of nerves, as it has been called, may not, by gradual exercise and proper difcipline, admit of fome cure, may, perhaps, be doubtful. It seems certain that it ought never to be trufted or employed.

CHA P. IV.

Of the Nature of Self-deceit, and of the Origin and Ufe of general Rules.

N order to pervert the rectitude of our

IN

own judgments concerning the propriety of our own conduct, it is not always neceffary that the real and impartial fpectator fhould be at a great distance. When he is at hand, when he is prefent, the violence and injuftice of our own. selfish paffions are fometimes fufficient to induce the man within the breaft to make a report very different from what the real circumftances