JOSEPH BUTLER.

through more labour and difficulties for the sake of his children than he would undergo from that affection alone if he thought it, and the course of action it led to, either indifferent or criminal.

165

and self-partiality may be in all different degrees. It is a lower degree of it which David himself refers to in these words, Who can tell how oft he offendeth? O cleanse thou me from my secret faults. This is the ground This indeed is impossible, to do that which of that advice of Elihu to Job: Surely it is is good and not to approve of it; for which meet to be said unto God,-That which I see reason they are frequently not considered as not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I distinct, though they really are: for men will do no more. And Solomon saw this often approve of the actions of others which thing in a very strong light when he said, they will not imitate, and likewise do that He that trusteth his own heart is a fool. This which they approve not. It cannot possibly likewise was the reason why that precept, be denied that there is this principle of re- Know thyself, was so frequently inculcated flection or conscience in human nature. Sup- by the philosophers of old. For if it were pose a man to relieve an innocent person in not for that partial and fond regard to ourgreat distress; suppose the same man after-selves it would certainly be no great difficulty wards, in the fury of anger, to do the greatest to know our own character, what passes mischief to a person who had given no just within the bent and bias of our mind; much cause of offence; to aggravate the injury, less would there be any difficulty in judging add the circumstances of former friendship rightly of our own actions. But from this and obligation from the injured person: let partiality it frequently comes to pass that the man who is supposed to have done these the observation of many men's being themtwo different actions coolly reflect upon them selves last of all acquainted with what falls afterwards, without regard to their conse- out in their own families may be applied to quences to himself: to assert that any com- a nearer home,-to what passes within their mon man would be affected in the same own breasts. way towards these different actions, that he would make no distinction between them, but approve or disapprove them equally, is too glaring an absurdity to need being confuted. There is therefore this principle of reflection or conscience in mankind. It is needless to compare the respect it has to private good with the respect it has to public; since it plainly tends as much to the latter as to the former, and is commonly thought to tend chiefly to the latter. This faculty is now mentioned merely as another part in the inward frame of man, pointing out to us in some degree what we are intended for, and as what will naturally and of course have some influence.

Sermon upon Human Nature.

SELF-DECEIT.

There is not anything relating to men and characters, more surprising and unaccountable, than this partiality to themselves which is observable in many; as there is nothing of more melancholy reflection, respecting morality, virtue, and religion. Hence it is that many men seem perfect strangers to their own characters. They think, and reason, and judge quite differently upon any matter relating to themselves from what they do in cases of others where they are not interested. Hence it is one hears people exposing follies which they themselves are eminent for; and talking with great severity against particular vices which, if all the world be not mistaken, they themselves are notoriously guilty of. This self-ignorance

There is plainly, in the generality of man kind, an absence of doubt or distrust, in a very great measure, as to their moral character and behaviour; and likewise a disposition to take for granted that all is right and well with them in these respects. The former is owing to their not reflecting, not exercising their judgment upon themselves; the latter, to self-love. I am not speaking of that extravagance, which is sometimes to be met with; instances of persons declaring in words at length, that they never were in the wrong, nor ever had any diffidence of the justness of their conduct, in their whole lives. No, these people are too far gone to have anything said to them. The thing before us is indeed of this kind, but in a lower degree, and confined to the moral character; somewhat of which we almost all of us have, without reflecting upon it. Now consider how long and how grossly a person of the best understanding might be imposed upon by one of whom he had not any suspicion, and in whom he placed an entire confidence; especially if there were friendship and real kindness in the case: surely this holds even stronger with respect to that self we are all so fond of. Hence arises in men a disregard of reproof and instruction, rules of conduct and moral discipline, which occasionally come in their way: a disregard, I say, of these; not in every respect, but in this single one, namely, as what may be of service to them in particular towards mending their own hearts and tempers, and making them better men. It never in earnest comes into their thoughts whether such ad

monitions may not relate and be of service
to themselves, and this quite distinct from a
positive persuasion to the contrary, a per-
suasion from reflection that they are innocent
and blameless in these respects.
Sermon upon Self-Deceit.

PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, born 1694, died 1773, famous in his day as a wit, a courtier, a politician, and patron of literature, is still remembered for his Letters to his Son Philip Stanhope, Lond., 1774, 2 vols. 4to; New edition, with Additions, edited by Lord Mahon [5th Earl Stanhope], Lond., 1845-53, 5 vols. 8vo. The first edition was republished in Boston, Mass., in 1779. Miscellaneous Works, with Memoirs by M. Maty, M.D., Lond., 1777-78, 2 vols. 4to; Supplement to his Letters, Lond., 1787, 4to.

"It was not to be wondered at that they had so great a sale, considering that they were the letters of a statesman, a wit, one who had been much in the mouths of mankind, one long accustomed virum volitare per ora.... Does not Lord Chesterfield give precepts for uniting wickedness and the graces?... Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son, I think, might be made a very pretty book. Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the hands of every gentleman."-DR. JOHNSON.

It may here be remarked that Johnson's letter to Chesterfield was grossly unjust.

GOOD BREEDING.

immoral man who invades another's property is justly hanged for it; and the ill-bred man who by his ill manners invades and disturbs the quiet and comforts of private life is by common consent as justly banished society. Mutual complaisances, attentions, and sacrifices of little conveniences, are as natural an implied contract between civilized people as protection and obedience are between kings and subjects; whoever, in either violates that compact justly forfeits all advantages arising from it. For my own part I really think that, next to the consciousness of doing a good action that of doing a civil one is the most pleasing; and the epithet which I should covet the most, next to that of Aristides, would be that of well-bred. Thus much for good breeding in general: I will now consider some of the various modes and degrees of it.

case,

Very few, scarcely any, are wanting in the respect which they should show to those whom they acknowledge to be infinitely their superiors, such as crowned heads. princes, and public persons of distinguished and eminent posts. It is the manner of showing that respect which is different. The man of fashion and of the world expresses it in its fullest extent, but naturally, easily, and without concern; whereas a man who is not used to keep good company expresses it awkwardly; one sees that he is not used to it, and that it costs him a great deal; but I never saw the worst-bred man living guilty of lolling, whistling, scratching his head, and such like indecencies, in company that he respected. In such companies, therefore, the only point to be attended to is, to show that respect which everybody means to show, in an easy, unembarrassed, and graceful manner. This is what observation and experience must teach you.

A friend of yours and mine has very justly defined good breeding to be, “the result of much good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others, and with a view to obtain the same indul- In mixed companies, whoever is admitted gence from them." Taking this for granted to make part of them is, for the time at least, (as I think it cannot be disputed), it is aston-supposed to be on a footing of equality with ishing to me that anybody who has good sense and good nature can essentially fail in good breeding. As to the modes of it, indeed, they vary according to persons, places, and circumstances, and are only to he acquired by observation and experience; but the substance of it is everywhere and eternally the same. Good manners are, to particular societies, what good morals are to society in general-their cement and their security. And as laws are enacted to enforce good morals, or at least to prevent the ill effects of bad ones, so there are certain rules of civility, universally implied and received, to enforce good manners and punish bad

ones.

And indeed there seems to be less difference between the crimes and punishments than at first one would imagine. The

the rest: and, consequently, as there is no one principal object of awe and respect, people are apt to take a greater latitude in their behaviour, and to be less upon their guard: and so they may, provided it be within certain bounds, which are upon no occasion to be transgressed. But upon these occasions, though no one is entitled to distinguished marks of respect, every one claims, and very justly, every mark of civility and good breeding. Ease is allowed, but carelessness and negligence are strictly forbidden. If a man accosts you, and talks to you ever so dully or frivolously, it is worse than rudeness, it is brutality, to show him, by a manifest inattention to what he says, that you think him a fool or a blockhead, and not worth hearing. It is much more so with

WILLIAM WARBURTON.

JOSEPH SPENCE, born 1699, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, 1728-38, and Regius Professor of Modern History, 1742, Prebendary of Durham, 1754, was drowned in a canal in his garden, 1768. Among his works are An Essay on Pope's 1727, 8vo; Polymetis; or, An Enquiry conTranslation of Homer's Odyssey, Lond., cerning the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of the Ancient Artists, Lond., 1747, royal fol.; Crito, by Sir Harry Beaumont, Lond., 1752, Lond., 1753, 8vo. He left a valuable MS. 8vo; Moralities, by Sir Harry Beaumont, collection of Observations. Anecdotes, and

The honour this country derives from the Duke of York's visit can hardly compensate the bad news of a Spanish war, which puts the city of London in a consternation. This event does honour to Mr. Pitt's sagacity, and the wisdom of his advice upon it. Whether this war, which was foreseen by nobody to be inevitable but by him, can be successfully managed by anybody but by him, time must show; for I would not pretend to be wiser than our teachers, I mean, the news-writers, who refer all doubtful cases, as the Treasury does all desperate payments, to time. What you say of Hume is true: and (what either I said in my last, or intended to say) you have taught him to write so much bet-Characters, which were first published in ter, that he has thoroughly confirmed your

system.

I have been both too ill and too lazy to finish my Discourse on the Holy Spirit. Not above half of it is yet printed."

I have been extremely entertained with the wars of Fingal [Ossian]. It can be no cheat, for I think the enthusiasm of this superficial sublime could hardly be counterfeit. A modern writer would have been less simple and uniform. Thus far had I writ ten when your letter of Christmas-day came to hand; as you will easily understand by my submitting to take shame upon me, and assuring you that I am fully convinced of my false opinion delivered just above concerning Fingal. I did not consider the matought. Your reasons for the forgery are unanswerable. And of all these reasons but one occurred to me, the want of external evidence; and this. I own, did shock ine. But you have waked me from a very pleasing dream; and made me hate the impostor, which is the most uneasy sentiment of our waking thoughts.

ter as

Sterne has published his fifth and sixth volumes of Tristram. They are wrote pretty much like the first and second; but whether they will restore his reputation as a writer with the public is another question. The fellow himself is an irrecoverable scoundrel.

I think the booksellers have an intention of employing Baskerville to print Pope in 4to; so they sent me the last octavo to look over. I have added the enclosed to the long note in the beginning of the Rape of the Lock, in answer to an impertinence of Joseph Warton. When you have perused it, you will send it back. I have sometimes thought of collecting my scattered anecdotes and critical observations together, for the foundation of a life of Pope, which the booksellers tease me for. If I do that, all of that kind must be struck out of the notes of that edition. You could help me nobly to fill up the canvas.

1820, crown 8vo, two editions,-one edited lished the same day: Malone's edition is by E. Malone, one by S. W. Singer,-pubonly a Selection; Singer's edition, 2d edit., 1858, fp. 8vo, professes to be authentic.

"Enough has been proved to show that, instead of a verbatim' reprint, what was wanted was a carefully revised, collected, and annotated edition, and that Mr. Singer's, neat and cheap, unhappily stops the way."-Lond. Athen., 1859, 250.

THE ENEID AND VIRGIL'S GENIUS.

It preserves more to us of the religion of the Romans than all the other Latin poets (excepting only Ovid) put together; and gives us the forms and appearances of their deities as strongly as if we had so many pictures of them preserved to us, done by some of the best hands in the Augustan age. It is remarkable that he is commended by some of the ancients themselves for the strength of his imagination as to this particular, though in general that is not his character so much as exactness. He was certainly the most correct poet even of his time; in which all false thoughts and idle ornaments in writing were discouraged and it is certain that there is but little of invention in his Æneid; much less, I believe, than is generally imagined. Almost all the little facts in it are built on history; and even as to the particular lines no one perhaps ever borrowed more from the poets that preceded him than he did. He goes so far back as to old Ennius; and often inserts whole verses from him and some other of their earliest writers. The obsoleteness of their style did not hinder him much in this; for he was a particular lover of their old language; and no doubt inserted many more antiquated words in his poem than we can discover at present. Judgment is his distinguishing character; and his great excellence consisted in chusing and ranging things aright. Whatever he borrowed he had the skill of making his own, by weaving it so well into his work

GILBERT WEST.

that it looks all of a piece: even those parts of his poems where this may be most practised resembling a fine piece of Mosaic, in which all the parts, though of such different marbles, unite together; and the various shades and colours are so artfully disposed as to melt off insensibly into one another. One of the greatest beauties in Virgil's private character was his modesty and goodnature. He was apt to think humbly of himself and handsomely of others; and was ready to show his love of merit even where it might seem to clash with his own. He was the first who recommended Horace to Mæcenas.

OBSERVATIONS ON HORACE.

169

is in these that he shews that talent for criticism in which he so very much excelled; especially in his long epistle to Augustus; and that other to the Pisos, commonly called his Art of Poetry. They abound in strokes which shew his great knowledge of mankind, and in that pleasing way he had of teaching philosophy, of laughing away vice, and insinuating virtue into the minds of his readers. They may serve as much as almost any writings can, to make men wiser and better: for he has the most agreeable way of preaching that ever was. He was, in general, an honest good man himself: at least he does not seem to have had any one ill-natured vice about him. Other poets we admire; but there is not any of the ancient poets that I could wish to have been acquainted with so much as Horace. One cannot be very conversant with his writings without having a friendship for the man; and longing to have just such another as he was for one's friend.

GILBERT WEST, LL.D., born about 1700 to 1705, died 1756, published among other things Odes of Pindar, with several other Pieces in Prose and Verse, translated from the Greek, etc., Lond., 1749, 4to; Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Lond., 1747, Svo.

"This is one of the acutest and best-reasoned works which have appeared in English on the Resurrection of Christ."-ORME'S Bibl. Bib., 464.

"His work is noticed here on account of the luminous and satisfactory manner in which he has har

Horace was the fittest man in the world for a court where wit was so particularly encouraged. No man seems to have had more, and all of the genteelest sort; or to have been better acquainted with mankind. His gaiety, and even his debauchery, made him still the more agreeable to Maecenas: so that it is no wonder that his acquaintance with that Minister grew up to so high a degree of friendship as is very uncommon between a first Minister and a poet; and which had probably such an effect upon the latter as one shall scarce ever hear of between any two friends the most on a level: for there is some room to conjecture that he hastened himself out of this world to accompany his great friend in the next. Horace has been most generally celebrated for his lyric poems; in which he far exceeded all the Roman poets, and perhaps was no unworthy rival of several of the Greek: which seems to have been the height of his ambi-monized the several accounts of the evangelical histion. His next point of merit, as it has been usually reckoned, was his refining satire; and bringing it from the coarseness and harshness of Lucilius to the genteel, I cannot forbear taking notice of one other easy manner which he, and perhaps nobody mark of integrity which appears in all the but he and one person more in all the ages compositions of the sacred writers, and since, has ever possessed. I do not remem- ticularly the evangelists; and that is the ber that any one of the ancients says any simple, unaffected, unornamental, and unosthing of his Epistles: and this has made tentatious manner in which they deliver me sometimes imagine that his Epistles and truths so important and sublime, and facts Satires might originally have passed under so magnificent and wonderful, as are capaone and the same name; perhaps that of ble, one would think, of lighting up a flame Sermons. They are generally written in a of oratory, even in the dullest and coldest style approaching to that of conversation; breasts. They speak of an angel descendand are so much alike that several of the ing from heaven to foretell the miraculous satires might just as well be called epistles, conception of Jesus; of another proclaimas several of his epistles have the spirit of ing his birth, attended by a multitude of the satire in them. This latter part of his heavenly host praising God, "and saying works, by whatever name you please to call Glory to God in the highest, and on earth them (whether satires and epistles, or dis- peace, good-will towards men;" of his star courses in verse on moral and familiar sub- appearing in the East; of angels ministerjects), is what, I must own, I love much bet-ing to him in the wilderness; of his glory ter even than the lyric part of his works. It in the mount; of a voice twice heard from

tory of the resurrection."-HORNE's Bibl. Bib., 138. THE SIMPLICITY OF THE SACRED WRITERS.

par