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tomed to lift, at length becomes lighter, that is, we do not feel it so heavy. In like manner, the feelings and the passions to which we have been long subject, are less perceived than those to which we are not so much accustomed. Hence it is, that we are more ready to tax the vices and foibles of others than our own; this propensity has been observed by many moralists, who look impartially on the affairs of the world, surveying, as from an eminence, the motly crowd beneath. The scripture has commanded us to pluck the beam from our own eye, before we find fault with the mote in another's; and the most ancient of heathen fabulists has told us, that Jupiter has given every man two wallets, the one placed behind him, containing his own faults, and one before, filled with those of others. In this apologue there is much wisdom and knowledge of mankind, for when once the worst of our passions and foibles have become familiar to us, we lose all idea of their deformity, consider them only as an indispensible part of our character, and as natural to us as the form of our personal features; but when we perceive the same defects in others, we never see them with the partiality of self-love, nor the dimness of continual custom, they strike us with their natural deformity, and we blame with freedom

the negligence of those who have suffered them to arrive at such an enormous height, we wonder that people have so little control over their passions, and say what a shocking thing it is that their education has been so much neglected, or that, when they came to be older, they did not see their faults. Tho' some men are honest enough to acknowledge their failings, yet the generality of the world are disposed to blame in others that which they are most prone to themselves. The merchant rails at his competitor for being fond of money. The gamester says, what an unhappy thing it is to be addicted to play, for it wastes both a man's time and his health. The pedant laughs at pedantry, and exclaims, "How ridiculous it is for a man to be fond of shewing his learning." The censorious old maid, after destroying the reputation of half her acquaintance, declares, she detests nothing so much as slander; and the antiquated prude thinks it mighty silly in young people to be formal and reserved. whether Whether many inconsistencies in the natural arising. and moral faculties of man, arise from the de- from defects fect of his nature, or from want of sufficient improvement, cannot easily be determined; for or ultivatin instance, there are some men who have an excellent ear for music and none for reading, and

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others who read and recite with the utmost propriety, without having any idea of musical rythm. Men who have shewn themselves the firmest opposers of tyranny, have, in their turn, become tyrants to those beneath them; of this there are two remarkable instances, one of which is furnished by history, and the other by the present times. Luther and Bonaparte were both of them champions of liberty, and, considering the difference of their power, resembled each other in the rigid violence with which they dictated to others who submitted to their authority. The causes of such inconsistency will be found in that love of power, and the tendency to abuse it, which are common to human nature, and which no art or philosophy

cán eradicate, tho' they may dininish its force. Inconsistency Another inconsistency which has been often of author remarked and censured, is, the difference be

tween an author's conduct and his writings; this, perhaps, admits of greater palliation than any of those already mentioned, for when a man sits down to write, with a view of instructing society, it is to be supposed that he will endeavour to see things in their best light, and elevate his ideas above the common conduct of the world, that he may hold up a pattern of excellence for general imitation, to improve and

enlighten those for whom it is intended; no wonder, therefore, if he should fall short of what he allows no one has ever yet attained. And if, in mixing with the tumult and confusion of the world, or even in the intercourse of private society, he should be found not always strictly to conform to the precepts he lays down in his writings, he may be pardoned for a few deviations, particularly when those who censure him are not the most correct in their conduct, nor refined in their ideas; but any gross violations of his own advice, any glaring contradictions to his own notions of right, will less deserve excuse, as it will naturally be expected, that the custom of reflecting coolly and at leisure, on the vices and follies of the world, should produce a considerable degree of deliberation and prudence in his own conduct, and render him not so liable to be hurried away by the temptation to which others, less accustomed to reflection, are continually exposed. The remarks which have here been applied to authors, will serve with no less force for divines, as they also are responsible for the advice of which they are supposed to be the authors; yet I believe it will be found, that many of our best preachers are not remarkable for the general regularity and integrity of our lives. The ex

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istence of the slave trade among free and christian nations, is an inconsistency which can only be accounted for on this principle, that as neither reason nor scripture can wholly overcome the force of the passions, men must be compelled to be honest either by fear or in

terest.

Lovey Power Among all the passions which force men into

occasions inconsistency, the love of power, which is the inconsistency first, and the most common, impels them to the

also, the

most violent extremes; it makes them cunning, boisterous, pliant, imperious, and humble; it prompts them to the most opposite schemes, and suggests the most contradictory methods of obtaining its purposes; it urged Richlieu to the odious policy of suppressing the protestants in France, and of supporting them in Germany; in public and in private it has the same effect of making men too often forget both their duty and their interest.

The love of fame is not a less dangerous passove of Fame sion, nor productive of fewer inconsistencies, 인 for it seeks to gain its object by so many different means, that they must frequently be at variance with each other. To be the friend of liberty, and the friend of her persecutors; to be a bawler against corruption, and employ it in secret; to love equality, and to despise those