which, being temporary, is overlooked by us, as nothing, and has not power to damp our fatif faction.

If my child be peevish and obftinate, and I be fenfible that pain and mortification will do him good, I can, without the help of much anger, have a kind of fatisfaction in inflicting it, and have little or no fympathy with what he suffers; though, for a time, he be in agony of distress, and think very unkindly of me. On the other hand, if I forefaw that he would lofe a limb in a few days, weeks, or months, I fhould look upon him in the mean time with a moft painful compaffion, notwithftanding he himself should be ever so happy, and enjoy himself ever fo much; nay, the want of apprehenfion and feeling in him, would sharpen their painful effects in me.

The effect is nearly the fame if, with refpect to ourselves, impreffions from the external fenfes be Jeft out of the question, and a cafe be put, that is purely intellectual. Suppofe, for inftance, my character be unjustly traduced, and, for a time, I be reckoned a most infamous fcoundrel; yet, if I be certain, that in a few days my innocence will be effectually cleared, fo that no perfon whatever will entertain the least doubt of it, fhall I,. in the mean time, be affected and mortified, with the fense of my disgrace? No, I shall hardly feel it at

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all; but shall rather fecretly exult in the future triumph of my innocence, and fhall fhow an un abashed and chearful countenance, till the prefent load of infamy be removed. It must be owned, however, that the fenfe of infamy, in this cafe, will be felt more or lefs, according to the degree of comprehenfion of mind to which we are arrived, and also that we shall be able to bear unjust scandal for a longer or fhorter fpace of time in the fame proportion.

The fame obfervation may also be made with refpect to all the cafes mentioned above. Thus it is that, by this power of comprehenfion, we are able to balance one idea or fenfation with another, whether they be of the fame, or of different kinds. With this refource, a good man, confcious of his own integrity, grows every day lefs fenfible to the cenfures of men, confoling himself with the approbation of his own mind, and the perfuafion that he enjoys the favour of his maker; till, after fufficient experience, this juft fenfe of things will make him almost wholly indifferent, on his own account, to every thing that the world can think or fay of

him.

A certain degree of this comprehenfion of mind, employed about proper objects, is fufficient to make a man virtuous through the whole courfe of his life. To arrive at this, nothing is wanting, but a distinct and ready apprehenfion of all the ill confe

quences of vice, and of all the good effects of virtue. For, as foon as, by this extended power of affociation, we perceive vice, with all that accompanies and follows it, as one undivided thing, and the virtues, with all their train, as one undivided thing likewife, the fuperiority of the latter, upon the whole, is fo great, that no man could hesitate a moment which to prefer. It is only by partial views of things that we are impofed upon, are bewildered, and confounded in our choice. When, in confequence of acting for fome time with this clear and fteady view of things, virtuous conduct is become habitual, the pains and difficulties of a virtuous courfe abfolutely vanish, and are abforbed in the sense of the infinitely greater good we hereby insure to our felves. In this cafe, even the plea fures of vice would be fhunned with abhorrence, because we could never separate from them the idea of the infinitely greater pains, with which they are clofely connected.

In matters to which we are much accustomed, this comprehenfion of mind, and coalefcence of ideas, is remarkably ready and complete. A person who has been much converfant in business and accounts, and who every day meets with gains or loffes, is affected just as the balance of the profits would have affected him, if he had never heard of the particulars. A perfon who is lefs converfant

in these things would feel his mind as it were, vibrate between both, and would longer perceive their separate effects.

The power of habit, in promoting a perfect coalefcence of affociated ideas, is moft remarkable in cafes where the external fenfes are concerned. The moon, when near the horizon, feems to be confiderably larger than it does when it is near the meridian; but this can be owing to nothing but the effect of habit, in confequence of having frequently compared its apparent magnitude with those of the intermediate objects: for its picture upon the retina is well known to be of the fame dimenfions, and therefore a child, or a perfon wholly without experience, could not imagine any difference in them. Nay, it is evident, from the laws of optics, that originally all objects appear to be in the fame plane, and that it is from experience, or habit, that we firft get the idea of distance, or of any dimenfion befides length and breadth.

Again, it is probable, that all objects appear double to every perfon, till, by experience, we find the mistake, and then learn to conceive of impreffions, made upon two correfponding points of the retina, as referring but to one object. However, fo abfolutely fixed is our judgment, (for fuch only it evidently is originally) that the moon is larger near the horizon, and that the appearance of two objects is, in reality, no more than that of one, that

we are now even puzzled to account for the fact. Perhaps like obfervations might be made concerning our other senses.

All these cafes are remarkable inftances of the power of affociation, and demonstrate a poffibility, not only that an idea, but even a fenfation may cease to appear to be what it originally was; yea, that it may be fo intimately connected with, and absolutely loft in associated ideas only, as to be no longer capable of being refolved back again into its former ftate.

Another thing worthy of our notice in these facts is, that this amazing effect is accomplished in a limited time, even pretty early in life; for no perfon can remember the time when objects appeared to him otherwife than they do now.

Do not these plain, but ftriking facts, teach us to conceive, how poffible it is, that any ideas whatever may be fo entirely coalefced by affociation, that the components parts of the whole image fhall abfolutely disappear, and never more be feen in the fame light in which they were originally viewed. Thus, all ideas of pain may, at length, perfectly unite with those of the pleafures which they have accompanied, or to which they have been subservient; and when once the general affociation, founded on the connection of good and evil, pleafure and pain, observed through all nature, is firmly established