even to the lowest of mankind; and nothing can be lower than the condition and fortune of a slave. And yet those prescribe wisely who enjoin us to put them upon the same footing as hired labourers, obliging them to do their work, but giving them their dues. Now, as injustice may be done two ways, by force or fraud; fraud being the property of a fox, force that of a lion; both are utterly repugnant to society, but fraud is the more detestable. But in the whole system of villainy, none is more capital than that of the men, who, when they most deceive, so manage as that they may seem to be virtuous men.

of justice.

Thus much, then, on the subject

XIV. Let me now, as I proposed, speak of beneficence and liberality, virtues that are the most agreeable to the nature of man, but which involve many precautionary considerations. For, in the first place, we are to take care lest our kindness should hurt both those whom it is meant to assist, and others. In the next place, it ought not to exceed our abilities; and it ought to be rendered to each in proportion to his worth. This is the fundamental standard of justice to which all these things should be referred. For they who do kindnesses which prove of disservice to the person they pretend to oblige, should not be esteemed beneficent nor generous, but injurious sycophants. And they who injure one party in order to be liberal to another, are guilty of the same dishonesty as if they should appropriate to themselves what belongs to another.*

Now many, and they especially who are the most ambitious after grandeur and glory, rob one party to enrich another; and account themselves generous to their friends if they enrich them by whatever means. This is so far from being consistent with, that nothing can be more contrary to, our duty. We should therefore take care to practise that kind of generosity that is serviceable to our friends, but

* "Liberality in princes is regarded as a mark of beneficence. But when it occurs that the homely bread of the honest and industrious is often thereby converted into delicious cates for the idle and the prodigal, we soon retract our heedless praises. The regrets of a prince for having lost a day were noble and generous, but had he intended to have spent it in acts of generosity to his greedy courtiers, it was better lost than misemployed after that manner."-Hume's " Dissertation on the Passions," section 2.

hurtful to none. Upon this principle, when Lucius Sylla and Caius Cæsar took property from its just owners and transferred it to strangers, in so doing they ought not to be accounted generous; for nothing can be generous that is not at the same time just.

Our next part of circumspection is, that our generosity never should exceed our abilities. For they who are more generous than their circumstances admit of are, first, guilty in this, that they wrong their relations; because they bestow upon strangers those means which they might, with greater justice, give or leave to those who are nearest to them. Now a generosity of this kind is generally attended with a lust to ravish and to plunder, in order to be furnished with the means to give away. For it is easy to observe, that most of them are not so much by nature generous, as they are misled by a kind of pride to do a great many things in order that they may seem to be generous; which things seem to spring not so much from good will as from ostentation. Now such a simulation is more nearly allied to duplicity than to generosity or virtue.

The third head proposed was, that in our generosity we should have regard to merit; and, consequently, examine both the morals of the party to whom we are generous, and his disposition towards us, together with the general good of society, and how far he may have already contributed to our own interest. Could all those considerations be united, it were the more desirable; but the object in whom is united the most numerous and the most important of them, ought to have the greatest weight with us.

XV. But as we live not with men who are absolutely perfect and completely wise, but with men who have great merit if they possess the outlines of worth, we are, I think, from thence to infer, that no man is to be neglected in whom there appears any indication of virtue; and that each should be regarded in proportion as he is adorned with the milder virtues of modesty, temperance, and that very justice of which I have so largely treated. For fortitude and greatness of spirit is commonly too violent in a man who is not completely wise and perfect; but the aforesaid virtues seem to belong more to a good man.

Having said thus much of morals; with regard to the

kindness which a person expresses for us, our first duty is, to perform the most for him by whom we are most beloved. Now we are to judge of kindness, not like children, by a sort of ardour of affection, but by its stability and constancy. But if its merits are such, that we are not to court but to requite the kindness, the greater ought our care to be; for there is no duty more indispensable than that of returning a kindness. Now if, as Hesiod enjoins, we ought, if it is in our power, to repay what we have received for mere use with interest, how ought we to act when called upon by kindness? Are we not to imitate those fertile fields which yield far more than they have received? For, if we readily oblige those who we are in hopes will serve us, how ought we to behave towards those who have served us already? For as generosity is of two kinds, the one conferring a favour, the other repaying it, whether we confer it or not is at our own option, but the not repaying it is not allowable in a good man, provided he can do so without injury to any. Now there are distinctions to be made as to the benefits received; and it is clear that the greatest return is due in each case to the greatest obligation. Meanwhile, we are above all things to consider the spirit, the zeal, and the meaning with which a favour is conferred. For many confer numerous favours with a sort of recklessness, without any judgment or principle, upon all mankind promiscuously, or influenced by sudden perturbation of mind, as if by a hurricane: such favours are not to be esteemed so highly as those which result from judgment, consideration, and consistency. But in conferring or requiting kindness, the chief rule of our duty ought to be, if all other circumstances are equal, to confer most upon the man who stands in greatest need of assistance. The reverse of this is practised by the generality, who direct their greatest services to the man from whom they hope the most, though he may stand in no need of them.

XVI. Now society and alliances amongst men would be best preserved if the greatest kindness should be manifested where there is the nearest relation. But we ought to go higher, if we are to investigate the natural principles of intercourse and community amongst men. The first is, that which is perceived in the society of the whole human race, and of this the bond is speech and reason, which by

teaching, learning, communicating, debating, and judging, conciliate men together, and bind them into a kind of natural society. There is nothing in which we differ more from the nature of brutes than in this; for we very often allow them to have courage, as for instance, horses and lions; but we never admit that they possess justice, equity, and goodness; because they are void of reason and speech. Now this is the kind of society that is most extensive with mankind amongst themselves, and it goes through all; for here a community of all things that nature has produced for the common use of mankind is preserved, so as that they may be possessed in the manner prescribed by laws and civil statutes: of which laws themselves some are to be observed in accordance with the Greek proverb, "that all things amongst friends are to be in common." Now this community consists of things which are of that nature which, though placed by Ennius under one head, may be applied to many. (says that author) who kindly shows the bewildered traveller the right road. does as it were light his lamp by his own; which affords none the less light to himself after it has lighted the other."

"He

By this single example he sufficiently enjoins on us to perform, even to a stranger, all the service we can do without detriment to ourselves. Of which service the following are common illustrations: "That we are to debar no man from the running stream;" "That we are to suffer any who desire it to kindle fire at our fire;" "That we are to give faithful counsel to a person who is in doubt:" all which are particulars that are serviceable to the receiver without being detrimental to the bestower. We are therefore to practise them, and be constantly contributing somewhat to the common good. As the means, however, of each particular person are very confined and the numbers of the indigent are boundless, our distributive generosity ought still to be bounded by the principle of Ennius,-"it nevertheless gives light to one's self,"-that we may still be possessed of the means to be generous to our friends.

XVII. Now the degrees of human society are many. For, to quit the foregoing unbounded kind, there is one more confined, which consists of men of the same race, nation, and language, by which people are more intimately connected

among themselves. A more contracted society than that consists of men inhabiting the same city; for many things are in common among fellow citizens, such as their forum, their temples, their porticoes, their streets, their laws, their rites, their courts of justice, their trials, not to mention their customs, and intimacies, with a great number of particular dealings and intercourses of numbers with numbers. There is a still more contracted degree of society, which is that of relatives; and this closes, in a narrow point, the unbounded general association of the human race.

For, as it is a common natural principle among all animated beings that they have a desire to propagate their own species, the first principle of society consists in the marriage tie, the next in children, the next in a family within one roof, where everything is in common. This society gives rise to the city, and is, as it were, the nursery of the commonwealth. Next follows the connexion of brotherhood, next that of cousins, in their different degrees; and, when they grow too numerous to be contained under one roof, they are transplanted to different dwellings, as it were to so many colonies. Then follow marriages and alliances, whence spring more numerous relationships. The descendants, by this propagation, form the origin of commonwealths; but the ties and affections of blood bind mankind by affection.*

For there is something very powerful in having the monu

"Families are so many centres of attraction, which preserve mankind from being scattered and dissipated by the repulsive powers of selfishness. The order of nature is evermore from particulars to generals. As in the operations of intellect we proceed from the contemplation of individuals to the formation of general abstractions, so in the development of the passions, in like manner we advance from private to public affections; from the love of parents, brothers, and sisters, to those more expanded regards which embrace the immense society of human kind."-Robert Hall's "Sermon on Modern Infidelity." In apparent opposition to this view stands the theory of President Edwards, which was afterwards extensively adopted in an aggravated form. "True virtue, according to him, (says Sir James Mackintosh, "Progress of Ethical Philosophy,") consists in benevolence, or love to being in general,' which he afterwards limits to 'intelligent being,' though sentient would have involved a more reasonable limitation. This good will is felt towards a particular being, first in proportion to his degree of existence, ('for,' says he,' that which is great has more existence, and farther from nothing than that which is little,') and secondly, in proportion to the degree in which that particular being feels benevolence to others." Perhaps the ablest refutation of these