CHAP. IX.

SOCIAL DUTIES.

HONOUR thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the sorrows of thy mother.

Remember that thou wast begotten of them, and how canst thou recompense them the things that they have done for thee.

My son, help thy father in his age, and grieve him not, as long as he liveth.

And, if his understanding fail, have patience with him, and despise him not, when thou art in thy full strength.

The longer we live, and the more we think, the higher value ought we to put on the friendship and tenderness of parents.'

Parents we can have but once.

Oh, cast thou not

Affection from thee !-In this bitter world,
Hold to thy heart that sterling treasure fast.
Watch, guard it; suffer not a breath to dim
The bright gem's purity.

Christianity commandeth us to cast out of our hearts all spite and rancour, all envy and malignity, all pride and haughtiness, all evil suspicion and

1 Johnson.

jealousy; to restrain our tongue from all slander, all detraction, all reviling, all bitter and harsh language; to banish from our practice whatever may injure, may hurt, may needlessly vex or trouble our neighbour. It engageth us to prefer the public good before any private convenience, before our own opinion or humour, our credit or fame, our profit or advantage, our ease or pleasure; rather discarding a less good from ourselves, than depriving others of a greater.1

Whatever mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of others, this is my criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, this is my measure of iniquity.?

If God be the father of all things, they are all thence, in some sort, our brethren; we are then, surely, obliged to an universal benevolence; to be kind and compassionate, to be helpful and beneficial to all, so far as our capacity reacheth; we are to endeavour, as we can, to preserve the order, and promote the welfare of the world, and of all things in it: even, upon this score, the meanest of God's creatures is not to be despised, the vilest worm is not to be misused by us, since even it is the work of His hands, and the subject of His care; yea, the object of His kindness, who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all His works. 3

One should not destroy an insect, one should not

1 Barrow, ii. fol. Serm. XVI.

2 Burns (Letter to Mrs. Dunlop). 3 Barrow, ii. fol. Serm. X.

quarrel with a dog, without a reason sufficient to vindicate one through all the courts of morality.'

I was glad, says Horace Walpole, to hear the brave Admiral Sir Charles Wager say, that, in his whole life, he never killed a fly.2

I consider very testy and quarrelsome people in the same light as I do a loaded accident go off and kill us.3

gun, which may by

There are persons who slide insensibly into a habit of contradiction. Their first endeavour, upon hearing aught asserted, is to discover wherein it may be possibly disputed. This, they imagine, gives an air of great sagacity; and, if they can mingle a jest with contradiction, think they display great superiority. One should be cautious against the advances of this kind of propensity, which loses us friends, generally in a matter of no consequence.*

They are not the striking, dazzling qualities in men and women that make happy. Good sense and solid judgment, a natural complacency of temper, a desire of obliging, and an easiness to be obliged, procure the silent, the serene happiness, to which the flattering, tumultuous, impetuous fervours of passion can never contribute.5

Mirth, however insipid, will occasion smiles, though sometimes to the disadvantage of the mirthful; but gloom, severity, and moroseness will disgust even in a Solomon."

1 Goldsmith (Detached Thoughts). 3 Goldsmith (Detached Thoughts). 5 Sir Charles Grandison, iii. 143.

2 Corr. iv. 229.

4 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

It is too severe to sadden the harmless mirth of others, by suffering our own melancholy to be seen; and this species of exertion is, like virtue, its own reward, for the good spirits, which are at first simulated, become at length real.'

Every one is forward to complain of the prejudices that mislead other men or parties, as if he were free, and had none of his own. Now every one should let alone others' prejudices, and examine his own.2

Nobody's notions, I think, are the better or truer for ill manners joined with them.3

Virtue itself became more beautiful from Fenelon's manner of being virtuous.*

It is but justice which we owe to others, to make the most candid allowances for their apparent deviations, and to put upon every action the most favourable construction. Such a temper, while it renders a man respectable and amiable in society, contributes, perhaps, more than any other circumstance, to his private happiness."

It is in vain for you to expect, it is impudent for you to ask, of God forgiveness, on your own behalf, if you refuse to exercise this forgiving temper with respect to others."

La morale est toujours réduite à ces deux points; être juste poure être bon; être sage pour être heu

1 Scott (Life), vii. 82.
4 Life, by Butler.

Hoadley on Acceptance, 95.

2 Locke.

3 Idem.

5 Dugald Stewart (Outlines).

reux. Sadi, poëte Persan, dit que la sagesse est de jouir, la bonté de faire jouir.'

Ce n'est pas pour notre propre avantage que tant de nobles facultés nous ont été données ; c'est pour seconder la pensée de l'Être suprême en epargnant du mal, et faisant du bien, sur la terre, à tous les êtres qu'Il a crées.2

There is nothing which makes a being, of a pure heart, so happy as to feel of importance to those one loves, and to be able, at the close of each succeeding day, to say, I have proved myself a "good and faithful" assistant; I have not thought of my own gratifications, but have given myself, honestly and unreservedly, to the interests and the comfort of those whom, above all the earth, I was bound to cherish.3

Souvenons-nous toujours que notre bonheur solide doit se fonder sur l'estime de nous-mêmes et sur les avantages que nous procurons à d'autres ; et que, de tous les projets les plus impracticables pour un être qui vit en societé, est celui de vouloir se rendre exclusivement heureux.1

It is not enough not to be unkind, we must be positively kind to every one.

We always find the advantage of putting people into good humour with themselves; and what does it cost us?

1 Duchesse de Choiseul (Lettres de Madame du Deffand). 2 Delphine.

3 Godwin (Deloraine). 4 Mirabeau, i. 348.