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fuch rational conduct contributes in every respect to happiness, by preferving health, by procuring plenty, by gaining the esteem of others, and, which of all is the greatest bleffing, by gaining a juftly founded felf-esteem. But in a matter fo effential to our well-being, even felfintereft is not relied on: the powerful authority of duty is fuperadded to the motive of interest. The God of nature, in all things effential to our happiness, hath obferved one uniform method: to keep us steady in our conduct, he hath fortified us with natural laws and principles, preventive of many aberrations, which would daily happen were we totally furrendered to fo fallible a guide as is human reafon. Propriety cannot rightly be confidered in another light than as the natural law that regulates our conduct with respect to ourselves; as juftice is the natural law that regulates our conduct with refpect to others. I call propriety a law, no less than justice; because both are equally rules of conduct that ought to be obeyed: propriety includes that obligation; for to fay an action is proper, is in other words to fay, that it ought to be performed; and to say it is improper, is in other words to fay, that it ought to be forborne. It is that very character of ought and bould which makes justice a law to us; and the fame character is applicable to propriety, though perhaps more faintly than to justice: but the difference is in degree only, not in kind; and we ought, without hefita

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tion or reluctance, to fubmit equally to the government of both.

Every

But I have more to urge upon that head. To the fenfe of propriety as well as of justice, are annexed the fanctions of rewards and punishments; which evidently prove the one to be a law as well as the other. The fatisfaction à man hath in doing his duty, joined to the esteem and good-will of others, is the reward that belongs to both equally. The punishments also, though not the fame, are nearly allied; and differ in degree more than in quality. Difobedience to the law of juftice is punished with remorse; difobedience to the law of propriety, with fhame, which is remorfe in a lower degree. tranfgreffion of the law of justice raifes indignation in the beholder; and fo doth every flagrant tranfgreffion of the law of propriety. Slighter improprieties receive a milder punishment: they are always rebuked with fome degree of contempt, and frequently with derifion. In general, it is true, that the rewards and punishments annexed to the sense of propriety are flighter in degree than those annexed to the sense of justice; which is wifely ordered, because duty to others is ftill more effential to fociety than duty to ourfelves fociety, indeed, could not fubfift a moment, were individuals not protected from the headstrong and turbulent paffions of their neighbours.

The

The final caufe now unfolded of the fenfe of propriety, muft, to every difcerning eye, appear delightful and yet this is but a partial view; for that fenfe reaches another illustrious end, which is, in conjunction with the sense of justice, to enforce the performance of focial duties. In fact, the fanctions vifibly contrived to compel a man to be just to himfelf, are equally ferviceable to compel him to be just to others; which will be evident from a fingle reflection, That an ac. tion, by being unjuft, ceafes not to be improper: an action never appears more eminently improper, than when it is unjuft: it is obvioufly becoming, and suitable to human nature, that each man do his duty to others; and, accordingly, every tranfgreffion of duty to others, is at the fame time a tranfgreffion of duty to one's felf. This is a plain truth without exaggeration; and it opens a new and enchanting view in the moral landscape, the profpect being greatly enriched by the multiplication of agreeable objects. It appears now, that nothing is overlooked, nothing left undone, that can poffibly contribute to the enforcing focial duty; for to all the fanctions that belong to it fingly, are fuperadded the fanctions of felf-duty. A familiar example shall fuffice for illuftration. An act of ingratitude, confidered in itself, is to the author disagreeable, as well as to every fpectator; confidered by the author with relation to himself, it raises felf-contempt: confidered by him with relation

relation to the world, it makes him afhamed: confidered by others, it raises their contempt and indignation against the author. These feelings are all of them occafioned by the impropriety of the action. When the action is confidered as unjuft, it occafions another set of feelings in the author it produces remorfe, and a dread of merited punishment; and in others, the benefactor chiefly, indignation and hatred directed to the ungrateful perfon. Thus fhame and remorfe united in the ungrateful perfon, and indignation united with hatred in the hearts of others, are the punishments provided by nature for injuftice. Stupid and infenfible must he be, who, in a contrivance fo exquifite, perceives not the benevolent hand of our Creator.

CHAP..

CHAP. XI.

DIGNITY AND GRACE.

HE terms dignity and meannefs are applied

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to man in point of character, sentiment, and behaviour: we fay, for example of one man, that he hath natural dignity in his air and manner; of another, that he makes a mean figure we perceive dignity in every action and fentiment of fome perfons; meanness and vulgarity in the actions and fentiments of others. With respect to the fine arts, fome performances are faid to be manly, and fuitable to the dignity of human nature; others are termed low, mean, trivial. Such expreffions are common, though they have not always a precife meaning. With respect to the art of criticism, it must be a real acquifition to afcertain what these terms truly import; which poffibly may enable us to rank every performance in the fine arts according to its dignity.

Inquiring first to what fubjects the terms dignity and meanness are appropriated, we foon difcover, that they are not applicable to any thing inanimate the most magnificent palace that ever was built, may be lofty, may be grand, but it has

no

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