want of desert, together with their destitution of all title to this perfection of esteem. Hence the necessity of teaching the young to form a just estimate of the value of opinion!

Man should neither be a slave to the judgment of others, nor utterly regardless of their views. Many causes operate to render the result of opinion uncertain and unjust. Passion, prejudice, fashion, example, all tend to shew the want of reliance upon its conclusions. At the same time, it must be allowed, that opinion, if left to itself, will in the main be right, and in the long run will come round to the side of common sense, and truth, and justice, and reason. However, distorted for a time, it will at length generally assume that rectitude of view, which gives it value and importance. Opinion, when it contravenes any portion of the revealed will of God, or is inconsistent with the spirit of Christ's religion is plainly not to be valued, nor admitted as worthy of consideration. But within this limit, the settled judgment of our fellows is valuable and desirable. It is not to be assumed as a motive to action, but it may be useful as a guide and directrix, provided always, that it be not inconsistent with any known and established principles. To be careless of public opinion implies a recklessness of feeling, which is not the result of a just appreciation of the judgment of others, and of an appeal to the great Searcher of hearts; but rather a consciousness of the incorrectness of our own character, and a low estimation of the attributes of mind generally; to be con

stantly changing our views according to those with whom we are surrounded, is to show that we possess no steady principle; but to defer to the opinion of large masses of mankind, to deliberate, to weigh, to estimate before we act, is to shew a just sense of the degree of value to be attached to public opinion, and an anxiety to escape from singularity; at the same time, declaring a resolute adherence to principle, and a determination not to sacrifice moral duty to obtain its suffrage; nor to comply with the prejudices of others, nor to countenance their follies, nor to dissemble our own views, nor to blink a result arising from these premises; to value opinion only as it is consistent with truth; to rise above it when its influence is prejudicial; to seek its improvement, and change its character, where it seems to have taken too low a standard of comparison.

SECTION XIII. Of Contempt.

CONTEMPT is applied for the most part to the individual who derogates from the dignity of man, as a rational, intellectual, and moral creature; who debases or perverts his reason; prostitutes his intellect, and turn aside from the uprightness of propriety into the devious paths of chicanery, intrigue, and the interested substitution of present or political expediency, for that sense of

justice, that principle of integrity which would sacrifice every personal feeling, every selfish emotion, every temporary advantage, rather than yield one atom of unbending truth. Con

tempt is poured upon the head of him who violates the laws of honour, whose word is not to be trusted, who has broken his promise, escaped from his engagements, forfeited his title to sincerity, or flagrantly failed in the performance of the duties enjoined by the social compact. It is also visited upon those who have been degraded by open and shameless vice; it is accumulated upon the idle, the intemperate, the ungrateful, the faithless, and the unprincipled. This passion isolates the individual who is its object; separates him from his compeers, and leaves him in hopeless obscurity; or associates him with a group of others, who are all hasting to the gloomy night of infamy. It is practically a solitary punishment, for contempt will hardly drag into notice the individual whom it scorns; it scarcely considers him as deserving so much notice, and rather fixes upon him the indelible brand, which will pursue him through life, and which will leave a blot upon his memory that will be handed down to his posterity.

Contempt is employed in punishing the avaricious and ungrateful, the impostor and the hypocrite, the selfish, the traitor to society, the betrayer of friendship, the violator of confidence, the calumniator of the innocent, the insidious disturber of the peace and good order of the relative compact. It is supplementary to human

laws, and extends its jurisdiction where they cannot reach. The object of legislative enactments, is the punishment of the more flagrant evil-doer; of him who by overt acts threatens the life or property of others; but the agency of contempt is poured upon the exertion of a similar principle, in little acts of moral larceny, which escape the vigilance of human jurisdiction. It operates immediately upon the principle of selflove, and hence its influence is severely felt; they whose hearts are not hardened by the destitution of feeling, despise themselves, and sink into the obscurity of the dark night of shame, from which they never find a way of escape, through the shades which they have drawn around them; others may struggle against its weight; they may affect to be above its reach; they may assume to act, and think, and feel, as though they were not the subjects of this passion; but contempt is not thus to be evaded; it sits immovably upon the character; no opposition can dislodge it; it is a perpetual source of sorrow, a dead weight, whose constant operation will be to sink the man in his own esteem, as well as in the judgment of others; he is not to be trusted ; he is shunned therefore as the deadly viper, lest his sting may be implanted in some unconscious moment; he loses the conviction of his fair reputation in society; and with fearful upbraidings, and bitter retrospects, and cruel anticipations; neglected by all, tormented by passion, and torn by conscience, he approaches his last hour, and

sinks unregretted, without a hand to smooth his pillow of sickness, or to close the eye of approaching insensibility. It is a dreadful punishment, a fearful retribution, and the exercise of the passion in Christian education, demands much caution.

If it were possible, to feel contempt only for the positive baseness, and not towards the base, it would be well; but the fact is precisely the contrary, for the object of this passion is rather the person than the thing; at least the feeling of the mind, however excited by the quality of action is certainly directed towards the individual. And this is a very questionable state; for first, we become the judges of conduct, and proceed to inflict punishment for delinquency; and this is not in the spirit of that religion which forbids us to judge others; which relies upon the justice and judgment of its divine Author; and which confidently reposes the punishment of guilt, with him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who has declared his hatred of sin, and has promised the fury of his wrath against transgressors.

Christianity enjoins us to be forgiving, compassionate, tender-hearted, pitiful, long-suffering, and merciful, states of feeling and of principle, to which the passion of contempt is inimical. Our blessed Lord himself, as he drew near to the close of his ministry, after having experienced the contumely of the Jews; after having witnessed their ignorance, blindness, hardness of

VOL. II.

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