ftructive of our Health or of our Understanding, we fin against our own Body and Soul.

Hitherto the Business of Self-Denial is clear and diftinct enough.

But, 2dly, let us bring Man into Society; let us introduce him into fuch a World as we are now converfant in; a World crouded with Business; full of various Interefts, Pleasures and Competitions: Here we fee a Multitude of new Relations arife; other Affections and Paffions expand themfelves, and the Business of Happiness grows intricate and confus'd.

It appears to the first View, that Man is fo form'd for Society, that he must reap many Advantages from it, if it be but tolerably well ordered. Society does not only furnish us with the Means of gratifying thofe Affections, which are purely focial, and muft neceffarily lie dormant in Solitude; fuch as, Compaffion and BeneI 3 volence:

volence; The Defire of communicating our Sentiments; of inftructing, pleafing, and excelling one another; but it alfo yields us Opportunities of raifing and improving those Pleasures which we affigned to Man in his fuppofed Solitude: Society, I fay, yields us better Opportunities of gratifying our fenfual Appetites, of preferving our Being, and enlarging our contemplative Pleasures. But it is at the fame time too apparent, that there is no Society fo well regulated, but that it throws in our way innumerable Temptations to infnare us in our Pursuits of Happiness. We are exposed to infinite Miftakes and Dangers in our focial State; So many Affections and Paffions as here display themselves cannot be governed, without continual Caution and good Judgment. 'Tis a Matter of great Difficulty and Niceness to gratify each in its proper Place and Subordination, and to hold an equal Balance betwixt them.

In

In a Society where by far the greatest Part of the Members acted rightly, or pursued the true Measures of Happiness, these Difficulties would vanish; there would be no room for the Exercise of Self-Denial; all would be Invitation and Pleasure and fhould any wrong Behaviour accidentally arife, the Evil of it would be fo immediately perceived and sensibly felt, that there could be no Motive to persist in it. But where the Majority are engaged in falfe Measures of Happiness; where there are innumerable kinds of wrong Behaviour blended together; and each of these is ftrenuously maintained to be the right; and perhaps almost all unite in rejecting that which is really fo: Where the natural Order of things is thus difcomposed and inverted; "Tis here that the Duty of Self-Denial becomes most neceffary and most difficúlt.

In a Concert of Mufick skilfully perform'd, all is Agreement.; and each Hand contributes to and improves the Harmony of the whole; and the leaft Difcord is immediately perceived and regulated. But where every Inftrument is untun'd, and every Hand plays a feparate Part, and every Ear regards only its own Performance, what could a judicious Artist do in fuch Company? how could he behave in the grating Din, the harsh Confufion?

As far as the Members of Society have the fame common Nature, fo far muft they have the fame common Happiness; and of consequence muft ufe the fame Means, and enter into the fame Measures in the Pursuit of it; and hence a common Regard to the Happiness of each other must neceffarily arife. Should every one seek his own Pleasure, without any Concern for the Good of others, nothing

could

could ensue but the utmost Violence and Confufion; and the Happiness of every one would be immediately deftroy'd. Every Member of Society must therefore, in the Purfuit of his own, conform himself to those Rules which are most promotive of the Happiness of the whole. Our Interest and Reafon combine to fuggeft to us this Rule, That we love our Neighbours as ourselves; that we do unto all Men, as we would they should do unto us. This is the very Band of Society. Every Action which contradicts this Rule is a Publick Violence; what the whole Society are bound to correct. It appears then that the most effectual way to preserve our own Being, and advance our Happiness, is to do it with an equal Regard to other Men's; that Publick and Private Good, Charity and a true Selfishness, are but one and the fame thing.

But