CHAPTER VI. CONCLUSION. PERSUASION not the necessary consequence of conviction-Partial success only of the present undertaking to be anticipated-The importance of the subject urged-The folly and criminality of trifling with it-The honest convictions of the votary of pleasure appealed to-The insufficiency of the plea, that fashion enjoins these amusements-Subjection to fashion the worst slavery-Motives to an effort of emancipation; it is honourable, will find its own reward-The unsatisfying nature of these pleasuresReligion recommended as the true source of peace and happiness—The difficulty of becoming religious examined-The hope of future felicity incompatible with a love of worldly pleasure-This truth will be recognised in the prospect of death-The sceptic argued with―The obligations of religion binding on him by his own principles. 150 REMARKS, &c. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. The love of pleasure is man's eldest born, YOUNG. MAN was designed for happiness. The benevolence of the Divine character forbids the converse of the position; while the instinctive desire of happiness, which is common to every breast, together with the profusion of means which are furnished for its gratification, supplies unquestion B able evidence of its truth. If any other object than immediate gratification is proposed as the aim of his being, it is not because his happiness is deemed of inferior moment, but because his ultimate good is necessarily involved in the duty enjoined. If he is subjected to privations, self-denial, and laborious exertions, it is because they facilitate the purposes which infinite benevolence contemplates in his existence; forming a valuable course of discipline, to train him for a nobler sphere of being, and to prepare him for the full enjoyment of that happiness which will be found in a successful termination of his probationary career. In the absence of correct apprehensions of this truth have arisen the equally dangerous extremes of Epicureanism and Stoicism; the former making virtue to consist in the unrestrained gratification of every appetite, the latter in the voluntary endurance of privation and pain. That truth prescribes a path equally remote from both these ex tremes, is evident on a glance at the circumstances of our present condition. It is a state of probation, and consequently is supplied with a wise admixture of good and evil. Positive sufferings, and criminal pleasures, both attend our path to try our virtue; to endure the former with becoming fortitude, and resist the solicitations offered by the latter, constitute the triumph of virtue, and the perfection of character. The latter task is undoubtedly the more difficult, and demands therefore the greater share of attention and diligence. A harder lesson to learne continence But the Author of our existence, while he contemplates us as probationers, and Spenser's Faery Queene. surrounds us with circumstances suited to that character, views us also as beings capable of enjoyment, and with a liberal hand, offers us the means of innocent pleasure in as great abundance, as, there is reason to believe, at all comports with our moral interests. What pleasures partake of the former, and what of the latter character, is a question of infinite importance; on which, however, men are by no means agreed. An extensive class of gratifications is, by some persons, pronounced innocent and lawful, and by others, criminal and dangerous. So strictly indeed are these opposite sentiments maintained by their respective advocates, and so uniformly do they appear in practice, that they form the distinctive characteristics of each party. What is commonly termed the religious part of society, is distinguished less readily by the peculiarities of its creed, than by its uniform avoidance of what is generally comprehended under the phrase "worldly |