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according to the degree of comprehenfion of mind to which we are arrived, and alfo that we fhall be able to bear unjuft fcandal for a longer or fhorter fpace of time in the faine proportion.

above.

The fame obfervation may also be made with refpect to all the cafes mentioned Thus it is that, by this power of comprehenfion, we are able to balance one idea or fenfation with another, whether they be of the fame, or of different kinds. With this refource, a good man, confcious of his own integrity, grows every day less fenfible to the cenfures of men, confoling himself with the approbation of his own mind, and the perfuafion that he enjoys the favour of his maker; till, after fufficient experience, this juft fenfe of things will make him almoft wholly indifferent, on his own account, to every thing that the world can think or fay of him,

A certain degree of this comprehenfion of mind, employed about proper objects, is fufficient to make a man virtuous through

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the whole courfe of his life. To arrive at this, nothing is wanting, but a diftinct and ready apprehenfion of all the ill confequences of vice, and of all the good effects of virtue. For, as foon as, by this extended power of affociation, we perceive vice, with all that accompanies and follows it, as one undivided thing, and the virtues, with all their train, as one undivided thing likewise, the fuperiority of the latter, upon the whole, is fo great, that no man could hesitate a moment which to prefer. It is only by partial views of things that we are imposed upon, are bewildered, and confounded in our choice. When, in confequence of acting for fome time with this clear and steady view of things, virtuous conduct is become habitual, the pains and difficulties of a virtuous courfe abfolutely vanish, and are abforbed in the fenfe of the infinitely greater good we hereby infure to ourselves. In this cafe, even the pleasures of vice would be fhunned with abhorrence, because we could never separate from them the idea of the infinitely greater pains, with which they are clofely connected.

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In matters to which we are much accuftomed, this comprehenfion of mind, and coalefcence of ideas, is remarkably ready and complete. A perfon who has been much converfant in bufinefs and accounts, and who every day meets with gains or lofics, is affected just as the balance of the profits would have affected him, if he had never heard of the particulars. A perfon who is lefs converfant in thefe things would feel his mind, as it were, vibrate between both, and would longer perceive their separate effects.

The power of habit, in promoting a perfect coalefcence of affociated ideas, is moft remarkable in cafes where the external fenfes are concerned. The moon, when near the horizon, feems to be confiderably larger than it does when it is near the meridian; but this can be owing to nothing but the effect of habit, in confequence of having frequently compared its apparent magnitude with thofe of the intermediate objects for its picture upon the retina is well known to be of the fame dimenfions,

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and therefore a child, or a person wholly without experience, could not imagine any difference in them. Nay, it is evident, from the laws of optics, that originally all objects appear to be in the fame plane, and that it is from experience, or habit, that we first get the idea of diftance, or of any dimenfion befides length and breadth.

Again, it is probable, that all objects appear double to every perfon, till, by experience, we find the mistake, and then learn to conceive of impreffions, made upon two correfponding points of the retina, as referring but to one object. However, so absolutely fixed is our judgment (for fuch only it evidently is originally) that the moon is larger near the horizon, and that the appearance of two objects is, in reality, no more than that of one, that we are now even puzzled to account for the fact. Perhaps like obfervations might be made concerning our other fenfes.

All these cafes are remarkable inftances of the power of affociation, and demonstrate a poffibility

a poffibility, not only that an idea, but even a fenfation may ceafe to appear to be what it originally was; yea, that it may be fo intimately connected with, and absolutely loft in affociated ideas only, as to be no longer capable of being refolved back again into its former ftate.

Another thing worthy of our notice in these facts is, that this amazing effect is accomplished in a limited time, even pretty early' in life; for no perfon can remember the time when objects appeared to him otherwife than they do now.

Do not these plain, but ftriking facts, teach us to conceive, how poffible it is, that any ideas whatever may fo entirely coalefce by affociation, that the component parts of the whole image fhall abfolutely disappear, and never more be seen in the fame light in which they were originally viewed. Thus, all ideas of pain may, at length, perfectly unite with those of the pleasures which they have accompanied, or to which they have been fubfervient; and when once the general

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