rough manner in a woman; these 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 spectators, the fource of blame and disapprobation. 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 smaller vices, and this fault can have no other origin than the uneafy fituation which it excites in others; we may, in this inftance, seemingly so trivial, clearly discover the origin of moral diftinctions, about which the learned have involved themselves in such 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 myfterious and inexplicable, which conveys an immediate fatisfaction to the fpectator; but how, or why, or for what reason, he connot pretend to determine. There is a MANNER, a grace, an ease, a genteelness, an Iknow-not-what, which fome men poffefs above others, which is very different from external beauty and comeliness, 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 easily explained, yet furely much of it prevails in all our estimation of characters, and forms no inconfiderable part of perfonal merit. This class of accomplishments, therefore, must be trusted entirely to the blind but fure teftimony of taste and fentiment; and must be confidered as a part of ethics, left by nature to baffle baffle all the pride of philofophy, and make her fen fible 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 these 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. SECTION IX. CONCLUSION. PART I. T may justly appear furprising, that any man, in fo late an age, fhould find it requifite to prove by elaborate reasoning, that PERSONAL MERIT confifts altogether in the poffeffion of mental qualities. ufeful or agreeable to the perfon himself, or to others. It might be expected, that this principle would have occurred even to the first rude, unpractifed 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 eafy to imagine, why Ta we we should ever feek farther, or confider the question as a matter of nice research or enquiry. And as every thing useful or agreeable muft poffefs these qualities with regard either to the perfon himself or to others, the complete 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, difturbed and confufed; a just figure is immediately prefented, without any art or attention. And it feems a reasonable prefumption, that fyftems and hypothefes have perverted our natural understanding; when a theory fo fimple and obvious could fo long have escaped the most elaborate examination. But however the cafe may have fared with philofophy, in common life these principles are still 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 obferve men, in every intercourfe of bufinefs or pleafure, 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 fhall fuppofe 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 ftudy of the laws, whofe quick penetration and early knowledge both of men and bufinefs, prognofticate the greatest honours and advancement f. You furprise me, replies a third, Qualities ufeful to others. + Qualities useful to the perfon himself. third, when you talk of CLEANTHES as a man of bu finefs 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 ftill more, fays a fourth, if you knew him more familiarly. That cheerfulness, which you might remark in him, is not a fudden flash ftruck out by company: It runs through the whole tenor of his life, and preferves a perpetual ferenity on his countenance and tranquillity in his foul. He has met with fevere trials, misfortunes as well as dangers; and by his greatness of mind, was ftill fuperior to all of them †. The image, gentlemen, which you have here delineated of CLEANTHES, cry'd I, is that of accomplished merit. Each of you has given a stroke of the pencil to his figure; and you have unawares exceeded all the pictures drawn by GRATIAN OF CASTIGLIOne. A philofopher might felect this character as a model of perfect virtue. And as every quality, which is ufeful or agreeable to ourselves or others, is, in common life, allowed to be a part of perfonal merit; fo no other will ever be received, where men judge of things by their natural, unprejudiced reafon, without the delufive gloffes of fuperftition and falfe religion. Celibacy, fafting, penance, mortification, felf-denial, humility, filence, folitude, and the whole train of monkish virtues; for what reafon are they every where rejected by men of fenfe, but because they serve to no manner of purpofe; neither advance a man's fortune in the world, nor render him a more valuable member of fociety; neither qualify him for the entertainment of company, nor increase his power of felf-enjoyment? We obferve, on the contrary, that they crofs all thefe deT3 firable * Qualities immediately agreeable to others. + Qualities immediately agreeable to the perfon himself. 1 firable ends; ftupify the understanding, and harden the heart, obfcure the fancy and four the temper, We juftly, therefore, transfer them to the oppofite column, and place them in the catalogue of vices; nor has any fuperftition force fufficient among men of the world, to pervert entirely thefe natural fentiments. A gloomy, hair-brained enthufiaft, after his death, may have a place in the calendar; but will fcarcely ever be admitted, when alive, into intimacy and fociety, except by those who are as dilirious and difmal as himself. It seems a happiness in the present theory, that it enters not into that vulgar difpute concerning the degrees of benevolence or felf-love, which prevail in human nature; a difpute which is never likely to have any iffue, both because men, who have taken part, are not eafily convinced, and because the phænomena, which can be produced on either fide, are fo difperfed, fo uncertain, and fubject to fo many interpretations, that it is fcarcely poffible accurately to compare them, or draw from them any determinate inference or conclufion. It is fufficient for our prefent purpofe, if it be allowed, what furely, without the greateft abfurdity, cannot be disputed, that there is fome benevolence, however small, infused into our bofom; fome fpark of friendship for human kind; fome particle of the dove kneaded into our frame, along with the elements of the wolf and ferpent, Let thefe generous fentiments be fuppofed ever fo weak; let them be infufficient to move even a hand or finger of our body; they muft ftill direct the determinations of our mind, and where every thing elfe is equal, produce a cool preference of what is ufeful and ferviceable to mankind, above what is pernicious and dangerous. A moral diftinction, therefore, immediately arifes; a general fentiment of blame and approbation; a tendency however faint to the objects of the one, and a proportionable averfion to thofe of the other. Nor will thofe reafoners, who so ear neftly |