alfo, in itself, unreafonable and unjuft. In order to form found opinions concerning characters and actions, two things are especially requifite, information and impartiality. But fuch as are most forward to decide unfavourably, are commonly deftitute of both. Inftead of pofsefsing, or even requiring, full information, the grounds on which they proceed are frequently the moft flight and frivolous. A tale, perhaps, which the idle have invented, the inquifitive have liftened to, and the credulous have propagated; or a real incident which rumour, in carrying it along, has exaggerated and difguifed, fupplies them with materials of confident affertion, and decifive judgment. From an action they prefently look into the heart, and infer the This fuppofed motive they conclude to be the ruling principle; and pronounce at once concerning the whole character.

motive.

Nothing can be more contrary both to equity and to found reafon, than fuch precipitate judgments. Any man who attends to what paffes within himself, may eafily discern what a complicated fyftem the human character is; and what a variety of circumftances muft be taken into the account, in order to estimate it truly. No fingle inftance of conduct whatever, is fufficient to determine it. As from one worthy action, it were credulity, not charity, to conclude a perfon to be free from all vice; fo from one which is centurable, it is perfectly unjust to infer that the author of it is without confcience, and without merit. If we knew all the attending circumstances, it might appear in an excufable light; nay, perhaps, under a commendable form. The motives of the actor may have been entirely diffe

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rent from those which we afcribe to him; and where we fuppofe him impelled by bad defign, he may have been prompted by confcience and mistaken principle. Admitting the action to have been in every view criminal, he may have been hurried into it through inadvertency and furprife. He may have fincerely repented; and the virtuous principle may have now regained its full vigour. Perhaps this was the corner of frailty; the quarter on which he lay open to the incurfions of temptation; while the other avenues of his heart were firmly guarded by confcience.

It is therefore evident, that no part of the government of temper deserves attention more, than to keep our minds pure from uncharitable prejudices, and open to candour and humanity in judging of others.→ The worst confequences, both to ourselves and to fociety, follow from the oppofite fpirit.

SECTION IT.

BLAIR.

The misfortunes of men moftly chargeable on themfelves.

WE find man placed in a world, where he has by no means the difpofal of the events that happen. Calamities fometimes befall the worthieft and the best, which it is not in their power to prevent, and where nothing is left them, but to acknowledge and to fubmit to the high hand of Heaven. For fuch vifitations of trial, many good and wife reafons can be afsigned, which the present subject leads me not to difcufs. But

though those unavoidable calamities make a part, yet they make not the chief part, of the vexations and forrows that diftrefs human life. A multitude of evils befet us, for the fource of which we must look to another quarter. No fooner has any thing in the health, or in the circumstances of men, gone cross to their wish, than they begin to talk of the unequal distribution of the good things of this life; they envy the condition of others; they repine at their own lot, and fret against the Ruler of the world.

Full of these sentiments, one man pines under a broken conftitution. But let us afk him, whether he can, fairly and honestly, assign no cause for this but the unknown decree of Heaven? Has he duly valued the blefsing of health, and always obferved the rules of virtue and fobriety? Has he been moderate in his life, and temperate in all his pleafures? If now he is only paying the price of his former, perhaps his forgotten, indulgences, has he any title to complain, as if he were fuffering unjustly? Were we to furvey the chambers of fickness and distress, we fhould often find them peopled with the victims of intemperance and fenfuality, and with the children of vitious indolence and floth. Among the thoufands who languish there, we fhould find the proportion of innocent fufferers to be small. We should fee faded youth, premature old age, and the profpect of an untimely grave, to be the portion of multitudes who, in one way or other, have brought thofe evils on themfelves; while yet thefe martyrs of vice and folly have the afsurance to arraign the hard fate of man, and to "fret against the Lord."

But you, perhaps, complain of hardships of another kind; of the injustice of the world; of the poverty

which you fuffer, and the difcouragements under which you labour; of the crosses and difappointments of which your life has been doomed to be full.-Before you give too much scope to your discontent, let me defire you to reflect impartially upon your past train of life. Have not floth, or pride, or ill temper, or finful pafsions, mifled you often from the path of found and wife conduct? Have you not been wanting to yourfelves in improving those opportunities which Providence offered you, for bettering and advancing your ftate? If you have chofen to indulge your humour, or your tafte, in the gratifications of indolence or pleafure, can you complain becaufe others, in preference to you, have obtained those advantages which naturally belong to useful labours, and honourable purfuits? Have not the confequences of fome false steps, into which your pafsions, or your pleasures, have betrayed you, purfued you through much of your life; tainted, perhaps, your characters, involved you in embarrassments, or funk you into neglect?-It is an old faying, that every man is the artificer of his own fortune in the world. It is certain, that the world feldom turns wholly against a man, unlefs through his own fault. "Religion is," in general, "profitable unto all things." Virtue, diligence, and induftry, joined with good temper and prudence, have ever been found the fureft road to profperity; and where men fail of attaining it, their want of fuccefs is far oftener owing to their having deviated from that road, than to their having encountered infuperable bars in it. Some, by being too artful, forfeit the reputation of probity. Some, by being too open, are accounted to fail in prudence. Others, by being fickle and changeable, are diftrufted by all.-The cafe

commonly is, that men feek to afcribe their disappointments to any caufe, rather than to their own mifconduct; and when they can devife no other caufe, they lay them to the charge of Providence. Their folly leads them into vices; their vices into misfortunes; and in their misfortunes they "murmur against Providence.” They are doubly unjuft towards their Creator. In their profperity, they are apt to afcribe their fuccefs to their own diligence, rather than to his blefsing; and in their adverfity, they impute their diftrefses to his providence, not to their own mifbehaviour. Whereas, the truth is the very reverse of this. "Every good and every perfect gift cometh from above;” and of evil and misery, man is the author to himself.

When from the condition of individuals, we look abroad to the public state of the world, we meet with more proofs of the truth of this afsertion. We fee great focieties of men torn in pieces by intestine diffenfions, tumults, and civil commotions. We fee mighty armies going forth, in formidable array, against each other, to cover the earth with blood, and to fill the air with the cries of widows and orphans. Sad evils these are, to which this miferable world is expofed.-But are these evils, I beseech you, to be imputed to God? Was it he who fent forth flaughtering armies into the field, or who filled the peaceful city with mafsacres and blood? Are thefe miferies any other, than the bitter fruit of men's violent and diforderly pafsions? Are they not clearly to be traced to the ambition and vices of princes, to the quarrels of the great, and to the turbulence of the people?—Let us lay them entirely out of the account, in thinking of Providence; and let us think only of the "foolishness of man." Did man control