It you mean to ſecure eaſe and proſperity on earth as the firſt conſideration, and leave futurity to provide for itſelf; you act prudently in giving your child an early inſight into the weakneſſes of his nature. You may not, it is true, make an Inkle of him; but do not imagine that he will ſtick to more than the letter of the law, who has very early imbibed a mean opinion of human nature; nor will he think it neceſſary to riſe much above the common ſtandard. He may avoid groſs vices, becauſe honeſty is the beſt policy; but he will never aim at attaining great virtues. The example of writers and artiſts will illuſtrate this remark.
I muſt therefore venture to doubt whether what has been thought an axiom in morals may not have been a dogmatical aſſertion made by men who have coolly ſeen mankind through the medium of books, and ſay, in direct contradiction to them, that the regulation of the paſſions is not, always, wiſdom. On the contrary, it ſhould ſeem, that one reaſon why men have ſuperiour judgment, and more fortitude than women, is undoubtedly this, that they give a freer ſcope to the grand paſſions, and by more frequently going aſtray enlarge their minds. If then by the exerciſe of their own[1]reaſon they fix on ſome ſtable principle, they have probably to thank the force of their paſſions, nouriſhed by falſe views of life, and permitted to overleap the boundary that ſecures content. But if, in the dawn of life, we could ſoberly ſurvey the ſcenes before as in perſpective, and ſee every
- ↑ 'I find that all is but lip-wiſdom which wants experience,' ſays Sidney.
