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others: The vicious exćefs of the former virtue, namely, infolence or haughtinefs, is immediately difagreeable to others: The excefs of the latter is fo to the poffeffor. Thus are the boundaries of thefe duties adjusted.

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A defire of fame, reputation, or a character with others, is fo far from being blameable, that it feems infeparable from virtue, genius, capacity, and a generous or noble difpofition. An attention even to trivial matters, in order to please, is alfo expected and demanded by fociety; and no one is furprised, if he find a man in company, to obferve a greater elegance of dress and more pleasant flow of converfation, than when he paffes his time at home, and with his own family, Wherein, then, confifts Vanity, which is fo justly regarded as a fault or imperfection. It feems to confift chiefly in fuch an intemperate difplay of our advantages, honours, and accomplishments; in fuch an importunate and open demand of praife and admiration, as is offenfive to others, and encroaches too far on their ser cret vanity and ambition. It is befides a fure fymptom of the want of true dignity and elevation of mind, which is fo great an ornament in any character. For why that impatient defire of applaufe; as if you were not juftly entitled to it, and might not reasonably expect, that it would for ever attend you? Why fo anxious to inform us of the great company which you have kept; the obliging things which were faid to you; the honours, the diftinctions which you met with; as if these were not things of course, and what we could readily, of ourselves, have imagined, without being told of them?

Decency, or a proper regard to age, fex, character, and station in the world, may be ranked among the qualities, which are immediately agreeable to others, and which, by that means, acquire praise and approbation. An effeminate behaviour in a man, a rough manner in a woman;

thefe

thefe are ugly because unfuitable to each character, and different from the qualities which we expect in the fexes. It is as if a tragedy abounded in comic beauties, or a comedy in tragic. The difproportions hurt the eye, and convey a difagreeable fentiment to the fpectators, the fource of blame and difapprobation. This is that indecorum, which is explained fo much at large by Cicero in his Offices.

Among the other virtues, we may also give Cleanliness a place; fince it naturally renders us agreeable to others, and is no inconfiderable fource of love and affection. No one will deny, that a negligence in this particular is a fault; and as faults are nothing but fmaller vices, and this fault can have no other origin than the uneafy fenfation, which it excites in others; we may, in this inftance, feemingly fo trivial, clearly difcover the origin of moral diftinctions, about which the learned have involved themselves in fuch mazes of perplexity and error.

But befides all the agreeable qualities, the origin of whofe beauty, we can, in fome degree, explain and account for, there ftill remains fomething mysterious and inexplicable, which conveys an immediate fatisfaction to the fpectator, but how, or why, or for what reafon, he cannot pretend to determine. There is a manner, a grace, an ease, a genteelnefs, an I-know-not-what, which fome men poffefs above others, which is very different from external beauty and comelinefs, and which, however, catches our affection almost as fuddenly and powerfully. And though this manner be chiefly talked of in the paffion between the fexes, where the concealed magic is eafily explained, yet furely much of it prevails in all our estimation of characters, and forms no inconfiderable part of perfonal merit. This clafs of accomplishments, therefore, must be trusted entirely to the blind, but fure teftimony of taste and fentiment; and must be confi

dered

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dered as a part of ethics, left by nature to baffle all the pride of philofophy, and make her fenfible of her narrow boundaries and flender acquifitions.

We approve of another, because of his wit, politeness, modefty, decency, or any agreeable quality which he poffeffes; although he be not of our acquaintance, nor has ever given us any entertainment, by means of thefe accomplishments. The idea, which we form of their effect on his acquaintance, has an agreeable influence on our imagination, and gives us the fentiment of approbation. This principle enters into all the judgments, which we form concerning manners and characters.

SECT

SECTION IX.

IT

CONCLUSI O N.

PART I.

T may juftly appear furprising, that any man, in fo late an age, fhould find it requifite to prove, by elaborate reasoning, that Perfonal Merit confilts altogether in the poffeffion of mental qualities, ufeful or agreeable to the perfon bimfelf or to others. It might be expected, that this principle would have occurred even to the first rude, unpractised enquirers concerning morals, and been received from its own evidence, without any argument or difputation. Whatever is valuable in any kind, fo naturally claffes itself under the divifion of useful or agreeable, the utile or the dulce, that it is not easy to imagine, why we fhould ever seek farther, or confider the question as a matter of nice research or enquiry. And as every thing useful or agreeable must poffefs thefe qualities with regard either to the perfon himself or to others, the compleat delineation or defcription of merit seems to be performed as naturally as a fhadow is caft by the fun, or an image is reflected upon water. If the ground, on which the fhadow is caft, be not broken and uneven; nor the furface, from which the image is reflected, disturbed and confused ; a juft figure is immediately prefented, without any

art

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art or attention. And it seems a reasonable prefumption, that fyftems and hypothefes have perverted our natural understanding; when a theory, fo fimple and obvious, could fo long have efcaped the most elaborate examination.

But however the cafe may have fared with philofophy; in common life, these principles are ftill implicitly maintained, nor is any other topic of praise or blame ever recurred to, when we employ any panegyric or fatire, any applaufe or cenfure of human action and behaviour. If we observe men, in every intercourfe of business or pleasure, in every difcourfe and converfation; we fhall find them no where, except in the fchools, at any lofs / upon this fubject. What fo natural, for inftance, as the following dialogue? You are very happy, we shall suppose one to fay, addreffing himself to another, that you have given your daughter to Cleanthes. He is a man of honour and humanity. Every one, who has any intercourfe with him, is fure of fair and kind treatment *. I congratulate you too, fays another on the promifing expectations of this fon in-law; whofe affiduous application to the study of the laws, whofe quick penetration and early knowledge both of men and business, prognofticate the greatest honours and advancement t. You furprize me, replies a third, when you talk of Cleanthes as a man of business and application. I met him lately in a circle of the gayeft company, and he was the very life and foul of our converfation: So much wit with good manners; fo much gallantry without affectation; fo much ingenious knowledge fo genteelly delivered, I have never before obferved in any one. You would admire him still more, fays a fourth, if you knew

Qualities ufeful to others.

+ Qualities ufeful to the perfon himself.
Qualities immediately agreeable to others.

him

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