Nugae literariae: prose and verse

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grity is requisite to the health and peace of the minit. A mantost to this, is tost to every thing. And, Proba ly, modes

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fear, an alarm of detection. The thies doth Dar oach busti an ossicer. ' It is also practicabie to Dei that we are sunk, without any essori to retrieve oUrselves. Remorae is the antithesis to sely appronai. Aiad one Who has founded a most poeticdrama upon this passion, has laid open iis equivocat character

in a light the most Philosophical, and with an ima gery the most

Thoro are other feelings Whicli, it may be alleged, do notrank themselves in this epitome: a species of heteroclites. Idare not, indeed, erect my system as the Caudine Forks underwhicli ali must submissively pass: stili these do not appear tome anomalles or eXception S. The impression of heauty resolvositself more nearly into an innate idea than any other. It is essentialty agreeable. EVery one Deis that it answers to a

io determine Why We are PleaSed. There are harmoniolas proportions whicli ali admire. There are combinations of coloursin whicli ali delight. There never Were two opinions as to the offect of a sWeeping colonnade. There never Were two Delingsas to the picturesque of a chil disti group in their Deest attitudos. But as it is the mind Whicli perceives such beauty, itis impossibio that the mere things them Selves Please; they arerolatod to ali tho intellectual associations and exquisite emotions whiel, tho mitid indulges, and must indulge, in these contemplations. Yset it is good, of Which beauty is an imperfeci emblemand but another name, Whicli inspires this Deling ; is not this Omplacenm 8 Tho influence of particular sentiment is just as certain andvnerring. It telis, in the instant, to the heart. It is moralheauty. When Ι speah of sentiment, I do not intond the

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but conception and Deling whicli the man of the woods wouldulter as finely, seiZe as truly, and cheristi as gratefully, as theman os polished cities,-sentiment new-born Dom the heari, selecting for itself a style os expression alWays inartificiat, butas inVariably terse, vigorous, majestic; embodying itself in actions Whicli can never need interpreters nor Want PanegyriStS. Os this order, are the sayings of the illustrious and the great; they transmit to us the authority of their speakers, and stillanoint them as the masters and laW-givers of mankind. Andthere may be Sentiment, an ethereat impulse, in an act. A noble

All have a notion os oblissation. We very eastly decidewhat is si and usefui. Justice and benevolence are reatly Cognate ideas, and compose the sum of the social duties. NoW adestre os happiness, or good, is a law of our nature. SALloveis insoparabis Doni ali intellectual existence. It must governnatures hoWever pure and radiant: it inspheres the anget in

his joy, Walis his obedient flicti, and modulates his endlessanthem. To love Oiar neighbour as Ourself, Whether the law of revelation or the dictate of reason, SuppoSes that Sel Dioveis the standard. I cannot understand, too, the force of any Warning or admonition, any sanction of reWard or punishment, but as an appeal to Aelfdove. There is no more inconsistencyof this selfdovo with the universat good, than of the destyrotation of our earth on iis axis With iis annuat revolution

Against the doctrine, hoWever, of the resolution of ali duty,

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and ali viriue, into this principie, there is denounced many an indignant protest. It is branded as repulsively unami te. Dowe, it is asked, in relieving the distress of others, meditato our own gratification 8 Do we, in the wHks os benevolence, propose our oWn happine88 8 The enquiries appear fair and conclusive. But let them be mel by others. Did you in thosephilanthropic deeds serget that you Were the creature laid under oblisations 8 or could you larget that you Were account lefor your obedience or disobedience to the great rule of sociallovo and fraternity 8 Were ali hope and fear banished Domyour mind 8 Was there no reference to the nature of Whichyou participate, in clothing the nahed and laeding the hungry Θ

a guide, an enaciment, hom the conviction that We Were not

circumference is the universe, selfism is a potnt Unrelated, unattached; While the one is the river-head, the other is the

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consciolis Deelings as in their oWn consequenCeS. Benevolenceis tho very talisman of happiness, humility the Secret of peace. EnVy is a gnaWing canker, revenge a hell-blasti The more malignant passions, is in this Way We must describe them, fretand exacerbate the milid, subjecting it to sitful changes, and appalling it with hideolis apparitions. In such hypothesis thereis much truth, but it must prove practicatly defective. Wemay be called to extremely painful duties and sacrifices: wemay susser a great Ioss of quiet, and encounter a great risk of danger, in obeying the cali: We may offend our dearest comnections, and lacerate our tenderest sensibilities. The rewardos that duty was not in immediate quietude and joy; nor mustiis reason be fought in these emotions. We deny not that this

discliarging a dia ty opposed to immediate happiness springs up afar superior happiness ; but the idea of that duty must bo theni dependent of any mere suggestion of Deling, for it may bethat the sobs of inWard and convulsive gries prove, that Whilotho duty is discliarged, at What a cost it is performed, and

the One passion being made to stand out by itself, iis place

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hecomes not infrequently Unnaturat, and iis violence seems to

A passioni ess human being is biit a puppet of humanity: hisis a poor mimicry of the reality: the foui is Wanting: he is a monster: he has no felloW: he Wallis Hone. There may boa state in Whicli every Deling is bitanted, and every sparsi has flod tho ashes of the heari; but such can bo only found in the solitaries of the desert and the recluses of the celi. Evon there a Basil may vent his moroseness, and Eloiso sigil

duli, uniformity of the scene ; these are the catches of light and the wavings of inadoW Whicli diversisy the ordinary Iandscape. These Leep our hearis in unison with the finest strings whichWere ever chorded to virtve and truth. Nor do me cito deedsos an equivocat character: our appeat is to thoso mild and beneficent triumplis concerning Whicli our suffrages cannot bedivided, nor Our admiration be deceived. The philanthropy, that is seen in great essoris at great intervais, is more the Subject of curiosi ty than of pleasure, as We gage On the opening clusters of the centenniat Aloe; but the Warm, the tender assiduities of hindness and frientiship, growing up Dom the beari, and faithful to iis innermost core, these cheer and Vary lila, as the perpetuat Rose only scatters iis leaves in reneWing iis

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Quietisis Would have us negative these importunities altogether ;certain demoralising writers, With Hume at their head, Would have iis obey them Unresistingly. Be it ours to fhun theso eXtremes, to denounce Such perversities: to leave equallyremote, on either hand, the tui, os Diogenes, and the styo of Epicurust The passions may be considered as in themselves neillior virtuous nor Victous. Their eXcellency and demerit Will provoto consist in their direction and degree. They are the stems onwhicli are engrafted the nobi est scions, and which bear a nobie fruit of their own ; they are the strong-holds of Whateuer is baseand devastating. It is not dented that, in our present degene- racy of nature, certain passion S exist in an only evit form. EnVy and revenge may be alleged. But these are eXcesses and distortions of what mi t be honourable and beneficiat Delings. Nor is there any influence compelling them but a morat cause. There may be as great a distinction belWeen the one and tho

alone can rule and engage them. It requires and enabies iis to

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ON THE PASSIONS OF THE HUMAN MIND.

It is deoply to be lamented that the aids and decorations os Poetry, Eloquence, Painting, Sculpture, Music, have been

and tho domestic hymn. The natural lives becauSe nature lives. The tender assecis, hecause nature is tender. So many an episode Survives, When the Surrounding Poem Perishes.

All of our happinoss and usefulness sor the influence of contingent circumstances is comparatively stender) must dependiapon Our accurate judgment of things. This must be our