naturally love a man, because he is of the same condition with ourselves; we have good-will towards him, because he stands in need of our aid, and may be profited by it; we love him yet more, if we know him to be of a mild disposition, and more still when he proves himself a friend to mankind, by acts of beneficence: but if we ourselves are the objects of that beneficence, our good-will towards him, and our delight in him, ought to be very strong. When we thus contemplate our benefactor, not only with sentiments of complacency and benevolence, but also with a disposition to requite his favours, this mixture of pleasurable emotions is termed gratitude. The reverse is ingratitude; which, if it cannot be called a passion, because it occasions little commotion in the corporeal part of our nature, is however a vice of such enormity, that the most profligate man would be ashamed to acknowledge himself guilty of it.

379. Si ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris, says the Latin maxim: if you call a man ungrateful, you have called him every thing that is base; you need say nothing more. The ungrateful man is an enemy to the human race; for his conduct tends to discourage beneficence: and he is unfit for society, and unworthy of it, because his indifference or hatred towards his benefactor proves him to be hard-hearted and unjust. There are two forms of this vile disposition; one, when a man neglects to requite a favour when the requital is in his power;

the other, when he returns evil for good. The last is no doubt the worst; but both are so bad that they are called by the same name; it being difficult to find in language an epithet of more reproachful import than ungrateful. Gratitude is a gentle affection, and makes no great commotion in the animal economy; yet is an active principle, and often displays itself visibly in the countenance, by raising the complexion, brightening the eyes, and sometimes filling them with tears. An eye that weeps with gratitude has a particular splendour and earnestness in the expression.

380. Gratitude towards things irrational, or even inanimate, (if the term gratitude may be used in such a connection), is not the object of censure or ridicule; for every emotion that resembles this amiable virtue betokens a goodness of nature, which the passions allied to anger frequently do not. The plank that brought the mariner on shore from a shipwreck, we should not blame him for taking particular care of, refusing to part with for any pecuniary consideration, and even sheltering from the injuries of the weather: we might smile at the circumstance; but it would be a smile, not of scorn, but of kindness. Dogs and horses have been instrumental in saving mens' lives. Particular goodwill towards such a dog, or such a horse, would be laudable; and to shoot the one for running down a sheep, or to harass with toil the old age of the other, would be cruel, and without any violent figure of

speech might even be termed ingratitude. However, what is properly, and without a figure, called gratitude (and the same thing is true of anger), has for its object a being that acts, or seems to act, with some degree of intention. We are grateful, not to the medicine, but to the physician, that cures us; and angry, not at the knife which wounds, but with the person who intentionally or negligently wielded it. Gratitude is due to every benefactor, and ought to be ardent in proportion to the magnitude of the favour, and the benevolence of those who confer it. Persons of small ability confer great favours, when what they do proceeds from a high degree of good-will: by him, who saw the generosity of the giver, the widow's mite was ac counted a great sum.

881. To the Supreme Being, who freely gives us life, and every other good thing, our highest gratitude is due, and should be continually offered up in silent thanksgiving, and often expressed in words, that it may have the more powerful effect on our own minds, and on those whose devotion we wish to direct or to animate. Parents are in the next degree our benefactors, at least in ordinary cases for to an attentive and affectionate parent, who must have done so much for us when we could do nothing for ourselves, and watched so long and so anxiously, and so frequently and fervently prayed, for our welfare, we are more indebted than to any other fellow-creature. A

stranger who relieves us, though he never saw us before and may never see us again, is also entitled to peculiar acknowledgments of gratitude, on account of the disinterestedness of his virtue. But we must not think ourselves exempted from the obligation of this great duty, even when our benefactor is a person on whom we may have conferred many favours. A parent ought with thankfulness to receive what a dutiful child offers for his relief. 'This is nothing more than I was well entitled to,' would be an improper speech on such an occasion. It would intimate, that the parent, in taking care of his child, had been actuated, as much at least by the hope of recompence, as by natural affection and a sense of duty.

SECTION VI.

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.

Passions and Affections.

982. I HAVE now given a brief account of some of our more remarkable passions, but have not gone through the subject, and could easily have proceeded further, if there had been time for it. Hints have been occasonally thrown in, with respect to the government of particular passions: I subjoin some brief remarks of a more general nature.

The government of the passions is a difficult work; but absolutely necessary, if we wish to be happy either in the next world, or in this. And as it is the more difficult the longer it is delayed, it is the part of prudence, as well as matter of duty, to begin it without delay. The difficulty of this duty may appear from the concurring testimony of wise men in every age; from the earnestness with which all moralists, particularly the inspired writers, recommend it; from what we may feel in ourselves of the unmanageableness of our passions, especially of those to which we are most inclined by nature or by habit; and from what we must have observed in the world around us, where we see men of good understanding, in other respects, enslaved to criminal inclinations, and led on to ruin, with their eyes open, by the strength of prevailing appetites.

383. Temperance, and an active life, are of the greatest benefit in preserving the health of both the body and the mind; and in giving us at all times the command of our thoughts, and consequently of our passions. Savages are much addicted to intemperance and idleness; and their passions are proportionably outrageous. As the passions depend in a great measure upon the imagination, whatever tends to regulate that faculty tends also to make them regular. And imagination is kept regular by cultivating habits of industry and soberness, piety and humility, and by cherishing the