confcientiously to do what is right, and genéroully and difinterestedly to pursue the good of others, though, to all appearance, we facrifice our own to it; and at all events to conform to the will of our maker, who, ftanding in an equal relation to all his offfpring, must wish the good of them all, and therefore cannot approve of our confulting our own happinefs at the expence of that of others, but must rather take pleasure in feeing us act upon the maxims of his own generous benevolence; depending, in general, that that great, righteous, and good being, who approves of our conduct, will not fuffer us to be lofers by it upon the whole.

There is a lower fpecies of felf intereft, or felfishness, confifting in the love of money, which, beyond a certain degree, is highly deferving of cenfure. As a means of procuring ourselves any kind of gratification, that can be purchased, the love of money is a paffion of the fame nature with a fondnefs for that species of pleasure which can be purchased with it. If, for inftance, a man makes no other use of his wealth than to VOL. I. procure

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procure the means of fenfual pleasure, the love of money, in him, is only another name for the love of pleasure. If a man accumulates money with no other view than to indulge his taste in the refined arts above mentioned, his love of money is the same thing with a love of the arts; or laftly, if a man really intends nothing but the good of others, while he is amaffing riches, he is actuated by the principle of benevolence.

In short, the love of money, whenever it is pursued, directly and properly, as a means to something else, is a paffion, the rank of which keeps pace with the end that is proposed to be gained by it. But in the purfuit of riches, it is very common to forget the use of money as a means; and to defire it without any farther end, so as even to sacrifice to this purfuit all thofe appetites and paffions, to the gratification of which it was originally fubfervient, and for the fake of which only it was originally coveted. In this ftate the love of money, or the paffion we call covetousness, is evidently abfurd and wrong.

This

This grofs felf intereft, which confists in an exceffive love of money, as an end, and without any regard to its ufe, will fometimes bring a man to abridge himself of all the natural enjoyments of life, and engage him in the most laborious pursuits, attended with most painful anxiety of mind; it very often steels his heart against all the feelings of humanity and compaffion, and never fails to fill him with envy, jealousy, and refentment against all thofe whom he imagines to be his competitors and rivals. Much less does this fordid paffion admit of any of the pleasures that refult from a consciousness of the approbation of God, of our fellow creatures, or of our own minds. fact, it deprives a man of all the genuine pleasures of his nature, and involves him in much perplexity and diftrefs; the immediate cause of which, though it be often abfurd and imaginary, is ferious to himself, and makes him appear in a ridiculous light to others.

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All these obfervations, concerning the love of money, are equally true of the love

of power, or of any thing else, that is originally defirable as a means to fome farther end, but which afterwards becomes itself an ultimate end of our actions. It is even, in a great measure, true of the love of knowledge or learning. This is chiefly useful as a means, and is valuable in proportion to the end it is fitted to answer; but, together with the love of riches and power, it is abfurd, and to be condemned, when purfued as an end, or for its own fake only.

The amaffing of money must be allowed to be reasonable, or at leaft excufable, provided there be a probability that a man may live to enjoy it, or that it may be of use to his pofterity, or others in whose welfare he interefts himself; but when we see a man perfifting in the accumulation of wealth, even to extreme old age, when it would be deemed madnefs in him to pretend that he could have any real want of it; when he difcovers the fame avaricious temper, though he has no children, and there is no body for whom he is known to have the least regard, it is evident that he purfues money as an end,

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end, or for its own fake, and not at all as a means to any thing farther. In this cafe, therefore, it is, without doubt, highly criminal, and deferving of the above mentioned cenfures.

4. Of the paffions which arise from our focial nature.

The paffions and affections which I have hitherto confidered are thofe which belong to us as individuals, and do not neceffarily fuppofe any relation to other beings, I fhall now proceed to treat of thofe which are of this latter clafs, and first of the pleasure that we take in the good opinion of others concerning us, which gives rife to that paffion which we call the love of fame.

This is a paffion that difcovers itself pretty early in life, and arifes principally from our experience and obfervation of the many advantages that refult from the good opinion of others. In the early part of life this principle is of fignal ufe to us, as a powerful incentive to thofe actions which