THIS is from the Duke de la Rochefoucault. Whenever we get the better of our paffions it is more owing to their weakness than our own ftrength. And again, there is in the heart of man a perpetual fucceffion of paffions, infomuch that the ruin of one is always the rise of another *. 29. Let pow'r, or knowledge, gold or glory, please, AN acute observation plainly taken from La Rochefoucault. " "Tis a mistake to believe that none but the violent paffions, fuch as ambition and love, are able to triumph over the other paffions. Laziness, as languid as it is, often gets the mastery of them all, ufurps over all the designs and actions of life, and infenfibly confumes, and destroys both paffions and virtues ‡." 30. Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be, Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree: Max. x. Max. CCLXVI, + Ver. 170. § Ver. 233. A fine reflection, and calculated to fubdue that petulant contempt and unmerited averfion which men too generally entertain against each other, and which diminish and destroy the focial affections. Our emulation, fays one of the beft-natured philofophers, our jealoufy or envy, should be restrained in a great measure, by a constant refolution of bearing always in our minds the lovely fide of every character *. The compleatly evil are as rare as the perfectly virtuous, there is something amiable almost in every one, as Plato obferves in his Phadon. THIS charitable doctrine of putting candid conftructions on those actions that ap * Hutchefon's Nature and Conduct of the Paffions, p. 190, Ο ουν αδελφος εαν αδικη εντευθεν αυτο 8 λαμβάνης, ότι αδικει αύτη γαρ λαβη εςιν αυτό ο εκείθεν μάλλον, ότι αδελφος, ὅτι συντροφος. See Epicteti Enchiridion, also. φορητη αλλ' Many leffons on this useful fpecies of humanity, tending to soften the disgust that arises from a prospect of the abfurdity and wickednefs of human nature, are to be found in Marcus Antoninus; and many noble Precepts in the New Teftament rightly understood have the fame tendency, but are delivered with more dignity and force, and demand certainly a deeper attention and more implicit regard. pear pear moft blameable, nay, most detestable and moft deformed, is illuftrated and enforced with great ftrength of argument and benevolence by KING, in his fifth chapter on the origin of evil; where he endeavours to evince the prevalence of moral good in the world, and teaches us to make due allowances for mens follies and vices. 31. What crops of wit, and honefty appear, Au Cid perfecuté Cinna doit sa naiffance, 32. Heav'n forming each on other to depend, A mafter, or a fervant, or a friend, Bids each on other for affiftance call, 'Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. IT * See alfo to this purpose a fenfible paffage in Hutchefon's Conduct of the Paffions, pag. 183. + Ver. 185. Boileau, Epiftre vii. a M. Racine, pag. 57 § "In rerum fyftemate vel optimè conftituto, debent effe diverfa animantium genera fuperiora, et inferiora, ut locus IT was an objection conftantly urged by the ancient Epicureans, that man could not be the creature of a benevolent being, as he was formed in a state fo helpless and infirm: Montagne took it and urged it also. They never confidered or perceived that this very infirmity and helpleffness were the locus fit præclaris animi virtutibus ubi fe exerceant: ex- Who founds in difcord, beauty's reign, Subdues the hoftile forms to rest, And bids the universe be bleft." "This is that magic divine, which by an efficacy paft comprehenfion, can transform every appearance, the most hideous, into beauty, and exhibit all things fair and good to thee! Effence Increate! who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." Three Treatifes, by J. H. pag. 234. cause cause and cement of fociety; that if men had been perfect and felf-fufficient, and had ftood in no need of each others affiftance, there would have been no occafion for the invention of the arts, and no opportunity for the exertion of the affections. The lines therefore in which Lucretius proposes this objection, are as unphilofophical and inconclufive, as they are highly pathetic and poetical. Tum porrò puer, ut fævis projectus ab undis THERE is a paffage in the Moralifts which I cannot forbear thinking POPE had in his eye, and which I must not therefore omit, as it ferves to illuftrate and confirm so many parts of the Effay on Man ; I shall therefore give it at length without apology. * Lib. v. ver. 223. "THE |