But how clear and beneficial foever this Truth may be, it will be ask'd, How fhall we form our Behaviour by this Rule in a Society, where, instead of adminiftring mutually to each others Prefervation and Happiness, the feveral Members are jealous of Encroachments one from another; full of Fears; long forecafting; heaping together large Poffeffions; and fortifying themfelves in them by all poffible Means, without much Regard to the Wants of others? where Diftrust and Caution, and most of thofe Methods which a State of War would require, become neceffary; and the Particulars in which there is fome kind of focial Union, are fuch as are pernicious; where Men inftruct one another in what is wrong; please and praise each other in things only which are vi

cious?

In fuch a State of things as this, it is evidently our Duty and Interest, how

how great an Act of Self Denial foever it may appear, to retire to the before-described Solitude; to withdraw from Society in every Inftance in which we cannot concur with it, but to our own and their Disadvantage. To behave otherwise is to make an easy Compliment to a mad World of our Health and our Happiness.

Tho' thefe general Rules take in all the Social Relations we can poffibly fall under, and may be readily applied to every particular Cafe that may arise; yet it may be of further Ufe to us, to point out fome of the principal Mistakes we are most expos'd to, the Particulars we are most apt to be partial and deceive ourselves in: Thefe will be fuggested to us by our most predominant Affections.

First then, the Principle of SelfPrefervation (on the Force of which I need not enlarge) may put us upon those Means which are in common

Ule,

Ufe, and which we fee generally prove fuccessful. In a very irregular Society, fome Men will amafs together great Abundance of the Neceffaries and Conveniencies of Life, by any Means that are fafe; this, notwithstanding the great Bounty of Nature, must involve others in Want; this Want, where it cannot be relieved otherwise, must produce Violence; and, tho' in large and mix'd Bodies particular Evils cannot be traced up to their first or principal Causes, and fo the chief Authors of them may escape; yet this Violence must fall fomewhere; and as none know on whom it may light, fo ought all to endeavour, as well for their own Sakes as other Men's, to avoid the Occafion, and remove the Caufe. In a very fmall Society every Exorbitance would be felt, the Author known, and the Redress exacted immediately. Every Member would be an equal Di

ftributor

stributor and impartial Judge for his own fake. The largest Societies are kept together by the fame Cement with the smallest; the common Happiness, whether it be of ten Men or ten Millions, must be promoted by the fame Rules of Behaviour. In the largest and most complicated Societies, there are but few Members who have to do with more than ten Perfons at one time, and would every one in his feveral kind of Commerce, tranfact with these as if there were no more Men in the World, we could not eafily err, in Matters relating to our Subfiftence, either against our own or the Publick Good. To cheat or oppress another, would be too manifest an Injury to ourselves to carry with it any Temptation.

Secondly, The Defire of pleafing and excelling, the Love of the Praife and Admiration of others, is an Affection of very great Force, than which

none more frequently, nor more fatally misleads us. There are but few Men, especially those of more generous Difpofitions, who, were they to examine ftrictly into the Motives of their Conduct, would not find this Affection continually interpofing and overruling almost all their Behaviour. How often do we see the Principle of Self-Prefervation itself, give way to it, and Health, and Life, and Reafon and Duty, difregarded in a blind Pursuit of Praife and Fame. I would not have this understood only of those Men who are, or defire to be poffeft of high Stations, for it is common to all, of all Ranks and Conditions; all have their several Ambitions, tho' they may act in a narrower Sphere, and are too apt to form their Manners, not from Confiderations of what is really valuable and praise-worthy in itself, but from what happens to be fo esteemed by those with whom they

con