ment, fo far as is confiftent with these ends. In this diftribu- PART IL CHAP. I. tion, there is a present restraint from what would be painful in SECT. II. the future; and a prefent direction to what may contribute to m future enjoyment, as well as fafety: And there is a sufficient reward for the performance of functions which enter into the courfe of a regular and well ordered life. The individual, in general, is kindly amufed and gratified in the act of preserving himself and continuing his fpecies, and the gratification or amusement, in the case of most animals, is fitted to occupy a confiderable part in the duration of life. Man is fufceptible of animal pleasure and pain, in a manner which argues the purpose of nature respecting him, to be nearly the fame as with refpect to other beings endowed with life. He alfo is destined to do what is neceffary for his preservation: but the mere gratifications of appetite which ferve to obtain this purpofe, are not fitted to occupy an equal portion of his time; and more is left, in his cafe, to the operation of principles in which he stands distinguished from other parts of the animal kingdom. When his preservation is fecured, the life he preferves still requires to be otherwife occupied. Like the other animals, he enjoys his food, the supply of his wants, and the gratification of various appetites. But no one ever thought of prolonging the gratifications of hunger, for instance, fo as to pafs a life of enjoyment at table, as fome animals appear to do in the use of food, at their ftall or their pasture. If man were not too proud for fuch a choice, nature has not qualified him to perfift in it. The pleasures of sense are merely occafional and temporary. They are, in their nature also, mixed and alloyed with pain. Animals are to be deterred VOL. II. B from PART. II. from what is hurtful, as well as allured to what is falutary; and CHAP. I. SECT. II. man himself, with all his knowledge of the end in view, must be prompted, in the detail of his actions, by the admonitions of pain as well as pleasure. The feeling, which prepares the animal fenfe to be gratified in the fupply of a want, is more or lefs a feeling of pain; and enjoyment is a mere relief from this feeling. Attempts to prolong the gratification beyond its natural period, bring a new species of pain, in the effect of fatiety. Still more, excefs of any kind is productive of suffering and harm: So that this fource of enjoyment is ever impure, either in respect to the pain that precedes it, or in respect to the disgust and harm that may follow from the unguarded pursuit of enjoyment. Whilft men, therefore, may admire the order of nature in this particular, and comply with it as an article of good sense and propriety, few, who are engaged in the fpecific pursuits of human life, look upon the pleasures of mere sense as matters of principal regard. Moft men become comparatively indifferent to their perfonal accommodations, in proportion as they are engaged in bufinefs, either private or public; or in the view of objects that ftrongly affect them, in behalf of their own honour and intereft, or in the cause of their family, their friend, or their country. To the other animals, as well as to man, mere exercise is grateful; and the efforts they are led to make for the preservation of life are, on this account, in part, conftituent of their ordinary pleasures. The ends, to which their active pursuits are directed, are fubjects of hope; and give joy in the prospect, as well as in the attainment or ufe. And, although the corresponding apprehenfions, 3 CHAP. I. henfions of ills to be feared, may anticipate the fufferings of for- PART II. row, yet the system of animal life, in general, is fo arranged, SECT. II. that, in the exertions required to felf-prefervation, the pleafurable prevail over the painful; and the general aspect of living nature is expreffive of alacrity and joy. The powers of reflection in the mind of man, that enable him to anticipate the future, as well as to recal the past, qualify him to enjoy, or expose him to fuffer, from this quarter, in a much higher degree than any of the other animals. Hence arife the variety of his paffions, hope and fear, joy and grief. The foundation of hope is the expectation of some good that is future, and therefore probably in fome degree an occafion of fear also. Grief has reference to fome evil endured; fear, to an evil apprehended. Either is a painful state of the mind, in actual distress, or in anxiety and folicitude, difqualified for any prefent enjoyment beyond what mere hope can fupply: But, with respect to the objects, whether of hope or of fear, the most agreeable state of the mind is alacrity in the reasonable exertions they fuggeft, and in the use of means to obtain or avoid them, which providence has put in our power. Security is, of all circumstances, the most conducive to pleafure. Hence the value which poffeffion acquires in paffing into property, that is, in being fecured: and the most agreeable state of the mind, in this respect, is the consciousness of a blessing of which neither chance nor caprice can deprive us. A bleffing which confists alone in the chearful performance of what we are entrusted to do, and in contentment with the scene of action in which we are placed. PART II. CHAP. I. Man has much of his employment, as well as the gratifications of fenfe furnished to him by the concerns of of his animal life. In these consist that complicated object which he terms his interest; and from thence arife many of the occafions on which he is employed for himself, for his country, and his friend. In The materials, which he strives to amafs for his own use, ferve him alfo as the means of beneficence to his fellow creatures. his intelligent or distinctive character, his occupations multiply and vary indefinitely; and the mere supplies of animal life are to him of less consequence, than the exertions of mind in which they engage him. In these his ingenuity and his affections are agreeably engaged in forming his designs, in recollecting his experience of the past, in conducting the prefent, and in preparing for the future. It has been well obferved, that every exercise of the human faculties, into which malice or fear do not enter as motives, and every exercise which is not carried to fome pernicious extreme of fatigue, is in its own nature agreeable *. "The neceflity of action," fays the Rambler, "is not only "demonftrable from the fabric of the body, but evident from "obfervation of the univerfal practice of mankind †, who, for "the preservation of health,” (he should have said for pleasure,) "in those whofe rank and wealth exempts them from the necef 66 fity of lucrative labour, have invented sports and diverfions, "though not of equal use to the world with manual trades, yet of *V. Theorie des Sentimens Agreeable. ་ SECT. II. 66 "of equal fatigue to those who practise them; and differing on- PART II. "ly from the drudgery of the husbandman or manufacturer, CHAP. I. as they are acts of choice, and therefore performed without the "painful sense of compulfion. The huntsman rifes early, pur"fues his game through all the dangers and obftructions of the "chace, fwims rivers, and scales precipices, till he returns home no lefs harraffed than the foldier, and has perhaps incurred "fometimes as great hazard of wounds or death; yet he has no "motive to incite his ardour; he is neither fubject to the com"mands of a general, nor dreads any penalties for neglect and "difobedience; he has neither profit nor honour to expect from "his perils and his conquefts; but toils without the hope of mu"ral or civic garlands, and must content himself with the praise of his tenants or companions." 66 But, fuch is the conftitution of man," continues the fame author," that labour may be ftiled its own reward; nor will any "external incitements be requifite, if it be confidered how much "happiness is gained, and how much mifery is escaped by frequent and violent agitation of the body." This author, in other parts of his work, or throughout the general strain of the whole, reprefents human life as a ftring of illufions, a tranfition from hope to hope, never from enjoyment to enjoyment: It is pleasant, therefore, to find him acknowledge a fource of present enjoyment, even amidst drudgery, toil, and danger, fo frequently stated by himself as conftituents of mifery: It is pleasant to find him acknowledge, that, even labour is its own reward; and, in this step at least, lead the way to an opinion, that all the exercises of a manly, and beneficent mind, though a fpecies of labour, may also be their own reward, and not the lefs |