too inexperienced to be aware of the frequency of their absence from the great mass of mankind. As we grow up,

cares multiply, bodily infirmities increase; we more often see collisions of interest, hollow professions, deceptive expedients, and intriguing arts of all kinds; and what is worse, we discover in our own breasts more of distrust, jealousy, passion, and other evils, than have been developed in our earlier days.

The true solution then is this; We attribute to one thing what belongs to another. We ascribe to the great mass of mankind, changes which have only taken place in ourselves. The world appears to us differently from what it did when we were young, not because it has itself essentially altered, (which can never be supposed to have happened in a single life of man ;) but because we, as individuals, have become more acquainted with its true character, and are made more sensibly to feel the pressure of its many ills. And it is for such reasons as these undoubtedly, that old men so often appear to be strangers in the midst of every thing that is present, and to live only in the world that is past.

In the adventures of Gil Blas, a work which cannot be denied to possess the merit of an intimate knowledge of human nature, we are introduced to the company of two old men, Count d'Asumar, and Signor Pacheco. "Count d' Asumar, far from concealing his grey hairs, supported himself on a cane, and seemed to glory in his old age. Signor Pacheco, (said he, as he came in,) I am come to dine with you. You are very welcome, Count, (answered my master.) Meanwhile, having embraced one another, they sat down, and entered into conversation, till such time as dinner was ready. The discourse turned first upon a bull-feast, which had been celebrated a few days before; and as they mentioned the cavaliers, who had shewn the greatest vigour and address, the old Count, like another Nestor, who, from talking of the present, always took occasion to praise the past, said, with a sigh; 'Alas, I see no men now-a-days comparable to those I have known heretofore; and the tournaments are not performed

with half the magnificence that they were when I was a young man.'-I laughed within myself at the prejudice of honest Signor d'Asumar, who did not confine it to tournaments only; but I remember, when the dessert was set upon the table, seeing some fine peaches served up he observed, In my time the peaches were much larger than they are at present; nature degenerates every day.-At that rate, (said Don Gonzales, smiling,) the peaches of Adam's time must have been wonderfully large."

§. 361. Of prejudices of home and country.

There are prejudices in favour of one's native country and of the village, where he may happen to have been brought up, and to live. And this prejudice in favour of one's own residence and nation is too often attended with a contempt and dislike of those, who have their origin elsewhere. It is notorious, that two of the most powerful and well informed nations on earth, the French and English, have for a long series of years affected to despise, and have most certainly hated each other. The French and Spaniards, who also are near neighbours to each other, have hardly been on better terms. The Italians, flattered by the eminent success of some of their countrymen in the arts, term the Germans blockheads; while the Germans get their satisfaction by bestowing the same appellation on the Swiss. Even the poor and ignorant Greenlander has his grounds of triumph; and amid his rocks and snows fondly imagines, that there is no home, no freedom like his.

Different explanations may be given of the origin of this strong attachment to our nation and the place of our residence; and of the contempt, which is often entertained for others. Whatever explanation may be adopted, the existence of such feelings is well known, and their influence in perplexing our judgments of men and things extensively felt. This is seen in the criticisms, which are made by the authors of one nation on the productions in literature and the arts of another. With the Englishman, Montesquieu is superficial and dull; with the Frenchman,

Newton dwindles down to a mere almanack-maker; in one country a writer is extolled on account of the place of his birth, and in another is decried and put down for the same reason. -It is important to all to be aware of the tendency to form erroneous opinions in consequence of these predilections and antipathies. A mind well balanced, and anxious to know the truth and to do equal and exact justice to all, will carefully guard against it.

§. 362. Professional prejudices.

Some erroneous opinions may be attributed to men's professions or callings in life. A little self-examination will convince us, that our feelings are apt to be unduly enlisted in favour of those, who are practising the same arts, pursuing the same studies, engaged in the same calling of whatever kind. When at any time it falls to us to discriminate between such and persons of another art or calling; to determine which has the greatest merit, or is the deepest in crime, there is no small difficulty in becoming entirely divested of this feeling. It continually rises up, even when we seem to be unconscious of it; it gives a new aspect to the facts, which come under examination; it secretly but almost infallibly perplexes the decisions of men, who have the reputation of candour, and who would be offended at the imputation of intended injustice.

The causes of prejudices, arising from particular professions in life, are undoubtedly much the same, as those which are at the bottom of the partial sentiments, which people entertain of their own home and country. There is something in our constitution, which leads us to feel a deep interest in those, with whom we are much associated, whose toils are the same, who have the same hope to stimulate, and the same opposition to encounter. Besides, our own selfish feelings are at work. Our honour, and consequently, our respectability are in some degree involved in that of the profession. As that rises or falls, individuals experience something of the elevation or depression.

Under this class of prejudices may be reckoned those,

resulting from that contraction and halting of the mind, which is often superinduced by an exclusive attention to one class of subjects or to one train of thought. When a man, who has been taught in one science only, and whose mental operations have consequently been always running in one track, ventures out of it, and attempts to judge on other subjects, nothing is more common than for such an one to judge wrong. It is no easy matter for him to seize on the true distinctions of things beyond his particular sphere of knowledge; and he mistakes not only in respect to the nature of the things themselves, of which he is to judge, but also as to the nature and rules of the evidence applicable to them.--An eminent mathematician is said to have attempted to ascertain by calculation the ratio, in which the evidence of facts must decrease in the course of time, and to have fixed the period, when the evidence of the facts, on which Christianity is founded, shall become extinct, and when, in consequence, all religious faith must he banished from the earth.

§. 363. Prejudices of sects and parties.

In religious sects, and in political or other parties, prejudices are still stronger, than those of particular arts and professions. In sects and parties there is a conflict of opinions, and not of trades; a rivalship of principles, and not of mere labour and merchandize. It is, therefore, an active, an aspiring competition. Too restless to lie dormant, it is introduced in high-ways, and workshops, and private and public assemblies; too ambitious to be easily overcome, it continually renews and perpetuates the conflict. The prejudices, therefore, of sects and parties have all the elements of professional prejudices, embittered by constant exercise. They convulse nations; they disturb the peace of neighbourhoods; they break asunder the strong ties of family and kindred.

The history of every republic, not excepting our own, affords abundant instances of the putting forth of these virulent and ungenerous tendencies. We do not mean to

say that a man cannot belong to a party without being prejudiced; however difficult it may be, to be placed in that situation without being tinctured with those feelings. But wherever they actually exist, they deaden every honourable sentiment; they perplex evey noble principle. Nothing can be clearer evidence of this, than that we continually behold men of exalted patriotism, and of every way unsullied character, traduced by unfounded imputations and charges; and which are known to be so by those political opponents, who make them. And it is a still more striking illustration of the strength of party prejudices, that we find a political measures, advocated or opposed by the same men, as they happen to be in or out of office; or as the measures in question happen to be advocated or opposed by the members of the other party. As if men, and not measures; as if places without regard to principles, were to be the sole subject of inquiry.

The prejudices of sects have been no less violent than those of political parties; as may be learnt from the hostility, which is yet exercised among them, and from the history of former persecutions and martyrdoms. Even philosophy has not been exempt'; different scientific systems have had their parties for and against; and the serious and dignified pretensions of philosophic inquiry have not always preserved them from virulent contentions, which were not merely discreditable to science, but to human nature. We are told in the histories of philosophical opinions, that the controversies between the Realists and Nominalists ran so high, as to end not only in verbal disputes, but in blows. An eye-witness assures us, that the combatants might be seen, not only engaging with fists, but with clubs and swords, and that many were wounded, and some killed. Not a very suitable way, one would imagine, of deciding an abstract, metaphysical question.

§. 364. Prejudices of authority.

Men often adopt erroneous opinions merely because they are proposed by writers of great name. The writings. of Aristotle were upheld as chief authorities for a number