his Hat, the Mother, to make him pull it off, tells him before he is two Years old, that he is a Man; and if he repeats that Action when she defires him, he's presently a Captain, a Lord Mayor, a King, or fomething higher if she can think of it, till egg'd on by the force of Praife, the little Urchin endeavours to imitate Man as well as he can, and strains all his Faculties to appear what his shallow Noddle imagines he is believ'd to be.

The meanest Wretch puts an inestimable value upon himself, and the highest wish of ✓ the Ambitious Man is to have all the World, as to that particular, of his Opinion: So that the most insatiable Thirst after Fame that ever Heroe was inspir'd with, was never more than an ungovernable Greediness to engross the Esteem and Admiration of others in future Ages as well as his own; and (what Mortification foever this Truth might be to the second Thoughts of an Alexander or a Cæfar) the great Recompence in view, for which the most exalted Minds have with so much Alacrity sacrific'd their Quiet, Health, fenfual Pleasures, and every Inch of themselves, has never been any thing else but the Breath of Man, the Aerial Coin of Praife. Who can forbear Laughing when he thinks on all the great Men that have been so serious on the Subject of that Macedonian Madman, his Capacious Soul, that

mighty Heart, in one Corner of which, according cording to Lorenzo Gratian, the World was so commodiously Lodged, that in the whole there was room for Six more? Who can forbear Laughing, I say, when he compares the fine things that have been said of Alexander, with the End he proposed to himself from his vast Exploits, to be proved from his own Mouth; when the vast Pains he took to pass the Hydaspes forc'd him to cry out? Oh ye Athenians, could you believe what Dangers I expose my self to, to be praised by you! To define then the Reward of Glory in the amplest manner, the most that can be faid of it, is, that it confists in a fuperlative Felicity which a Man, who is confcious of having perform'd a noble Action, enjoys in Self-love, whilst he is thinking on the Applause he expects of others.

But here I shall be told, that befides the noify Toils of War and publick Bustle of the Ambitious, there are noble and generous Actions that are perform'd in Silence; that Virtue being its own Reward, those who are really Good have a Satisfaction in their Confciousness of being so, which is all the Recompence they expect from the most worthy Performances; that among the Heathens there have been Men, who, when they did good to others, were so far from coveting Thanks and Applause, that they took all imaginable Care to be for ever conceal'd from those on whom they bestow'd their Benefits,

:

1

:

Benefits, and confequently that Pride has no hand in spurring Man on to the highest pitch of Self-denial.

In answer to this I say, that it is impossible to judge of a Man's Performance, unless we are thoroughly acquainted with the Principle and Motive from which he acts. Pity, tho' it is the most gentle and the least mischievous of all our Paffions, is yet as much a Frailty of our Nature, as Anger, Pride, or Fear. The weakest Minds have generally the greatest Share of it, for which Reason none are moreCompaffionate than Women and Children, It must be own'd, that of all our Weaknesses it is the most amiable, and bears the greatest Resemblance to Virtue; nay, without a considerable mixture of it the Society could hardly subsist: But as it is an Impulse of Nature, that consults neither the publick Interest nor our own Reason, it may produce Evil as well as Good. It has help'd to destroy the Honour of Virgins, and corrupted the Integrity of Judges; and whoever acts from it as a Principle, what Good foever he may bring to the Society, has nothing to boast of but that he has indulged a Passion that has happened to be beneficial to the Publick. There is no Merit in saving an Innocent Babe ready to drop into the Fire: The Action is neither good nor bad, and what Benefit soever the Infant received, we only obliged our felves; for to have seen it fall, and not strove

strove to hinder it, would have caused a Pain, which Self-preservation compell'd us to prevent : Nor has a rich Prodigal, that happens to be of a commiserating Temper, and loves to gratify his Paffions, greater Virtue to boaft of when he relieves an Object of Compaffion with what to himself is a Trifle.

But fuch Men, as without complying with any Weakness of their own, can part from what they value themselves, and, from no other Motive but their Love to Goodness, perform a worthy Action in Silence; Such Men, I confess, have acquir'd more refin'd Notions of Virtue than those I have hitherto spoke of; yet even in these (with which the / World has yet never swarm'd) we may difcover no small Symptoms of Pride, and the humblest Man alive must confess, that the Reward of a Virtuous Action, which is the Satisfaction that ensues upon it, consists in a certain Pleasure he procures to himself by Contemplating on his own Worth: Which Pleasure, together with the Occafion of it, are as certain Signs of Pride, as looking Pale and Trembling at any imminent Danger, are the Symptoms of Fear.

If the too fcrupulous Reader should at first View condemn these Notions concerning the Origin of Moral Virtue, and think them perhaps offensive to Christianity, I hope he'll forbear his Censures, when he shall confider, that nothing can render the unsearchable depth

depth of the Divine Wisdom more confpicuous, than that Man, whom Providence had defigned for Society, should not only by his own Frailties and Imperfections be led into the Road to Temporal Happiness, but likewife receive, from a seeming Neceffity of Natural Causes, a Tincture of that Knowledge, in which he was afterwards to be made perfect by the True Religion, to his Eternal Welfare.

RE