and feeling, and judgment, some traces will yet be found in man, descriptive of his high original, some feeble glimmerings, which still faintly indicate what he once was, and what he might have been. So in the present instance, a sense of justice may be found inherent in the human mind, although so lamentably distorted and obscured; aye, even its vestiges are to be marked in the retributive visitations of savage life, which though influenced by passion, and stimulated by the love of revenge, do yet proceed upon the assumption of appeasing the angry spirits of their relatives and friends, by visiting the injustice done to others, through the medium of calamities of an equally, or more fearful nature. So again, with regard to the power of conscience, which though defined by the amount of moral principle in action, and by the influence of religious motive, does yet always to a certain extent, approve the just, and condemn the unjust. But though there may be a foundation for this virtue, it is confessedly feeble, and becomes the immediate object of education to develop, to strengthen, to inform, to enforce, and practically to apply; and this is to be accomplished by moral and religious instruction.

The principles of justice and morality are alike; and moral duty is uniform in its character; since it flows from one source only, viz. the revelation of the will of God which he has vouchsafed to man. Thus justice is founded on immutable truth; and it is implanted in the human heart in the form of

an authentic communication from the Most High God to his feeble erring creatures; it is the offspring of infinite mind, is applied by infinite wisdom, and leads to infinite good. Thus it is perfectly independent of the varying opinions of man, and of all the nicer distinctions of philosophical morality; it is the judgment of God, not the caprice or prejudice of man; it is the law of heaven, and not simply the institutions of reason; it is not the result of opinion, since it rests in religion, in that counterpart of infinite mind, which existed anterior to the formation of all possible opinion; it is the indestructible attribute of Jehovah, and is to be found in man only as it may have been vouchsafed to him: although frequently clothed in language, it is altogether independent of words; it requires no logical support, and cannot be enforced by argument, for it is the science of duty, and consists in a prompt feeling of right, and in obedient action, not in reasoning and discussion, speculation and hypothesis. Justice is to the social compact what medicine is to the body; it should remove every uneasiness, repress every excessive action, stimulate every languid function, restore and preserve the balance of the several organs of which the body is composed, sustain its wasting energies, husband its resources, and secure, as far as possible, all the highest perfection of healthy action. So the object of justice is to cure and to correct the disorders to which the will of man is prone; to obviate the effects of injury, to repress vice, to

VOL. II.

F F

encourage virtue, to restore and to preserve the influence of religious principle, to support the feeble with its all-important sanctions, views and hopes, to be niggard of displaying its resources except upon the substantial ground of benevolent action, and to continue increasing in truth and righteousness, in good-will to man and conformity to God. Man is blind to his real interests; he goes on frowardly in the way of his own heart; he is infatuated by his senses; deaf to the admonitions of conscience; torn by conflicting emotions; driven hither and thither by passion; agitated by ardent desires, and by extravagant and unjustifiable pretensions; arrogant in his designs; presumptuous in his wishes; avaricious in his schemes for futurity; ambitious in his views; the prey of malevolent intention; enslaved by his fears; inhuman and ferocious in the exercise of courage; enfeebled by envy; stimulated by jealousy and suspicion; deceitful and vain; and the design of justice is to remedy these evils: with these views, also, it is to be educated, and to form a daily and hourly principle of the young mind's conduct. And while it is inculcated in action, it must also be exhibited towards them, and kept up as an uniform and last appeal in all their little differences, and is never to be commuted for any inferior consideration; "fiat Justitia, ruat Cælum.”

SECTION VIII. On Ridicule.

RIDICULE can seldom if ever be employed, without giving pain to the individual who is its object, and it is not often engaged on the side of real, valuable truth; since this possesses so many solid claims to attention, and is entitled to support on such substantial grounds, that it requires not the aid of this weapon for its support. It is much more frequently retained against all that is just in sentiment, or valuable in feeling, or excellent in conduct; for by the assistance of wit, that may be rendered ridiculous, or at least may be made to appear such, against which there is no other practicable mode of attack; a sarcasm may be accepted instead of an argument; a grotesque, or awkward exhibition of truth, may serve to render it unpalatable; an extreme display of feeling, the exhibition of the most feeble reasoning, an excessive severity of conduct upon the merest trifles, may serve to discredit genuine tenderness of conscience, or the influence of correct principle and real circumspection-all valuable qualities, which cannot be otherwise impugned. But so it is, that man cannot bear to be laughed at; and that he who has risen above the frowns of his companions, and has been proof against the temptation of their smiles, and has satisfactorily refuted their sophisms, and has shewn himself superior to the coldness of their neglect, and has steadily held

on his way in spite of every obstacle, and notwithstanding the, persecution of his compeers, will yet yield his fairest convictions, his present peace, and future hopes, to the feeble but envenomed shaft of ridicule.

Ridicule takes its origin in the pride and malignity of man; it is the assumption of fancied superiority by one who dares to affix absurdity to the thoughts or conduct of another; and it is the offspring of that malevolence which is pleased with making others feel a real or fancied inferiority, heightened by the display of an assumed pre-eminence in an authoritative manner; a measure well calculated not only for effect, but for painful effect. It is then the result of that cruel pleasure which we experience at the knowledge of any thing which may derogate from the character, or bring disgrace upon our equals. Thus therefore it is the weapon of the feeble and the vicious, used against the strong and the virtuous; it is a dernier resort of the vanquished in argument, or the ashamed in feeling, or the convinced in duty; of those who can no longer stand up against the force of reasoning, and against whose conduct and feeling, marching in the simple majesty of truth and virtue, is a perpetual reproach. So true is this general rule, that ridicule is found attached to the very lowest scale of mental manifestation the weak may laugh, though they cannot reason; aye, even the idiot, and the miserable victim of Alpine disease, are capable of evincing the sneer of ridicule; and these too, it may be