felfifhnefs, aided by pride, acquires the preponderance in the moral balance, though they are defigned by Providence to counteract each other. Selfishness is the handmaid of many vices: yet corrupt as the heart may be, pride still flatters the fancy by all the arts of felf-adulation. It is not neceffary here to analyfe thofe arts which will be found amply detailed in the works of many moralifts and divines. But with this pride, a fpurious fort of fympathy is often found to combine, if it may be called fympathy which confifts, not in fellow feeling, properly fo called, but in viewing all characters through its own medium, and judging of their principles, motives, and actions, by its own. It therefore draws this conclufion, that where the motives are the fame, the actions must be fimilar. The language of the true philanthropift is, "I will put myself in that perfon's fituation, and act towards him as I might reasonably expect he would act with regard to me in like circumstances." The fecret language of the selfish man, who attributes to all mankind his own difpofition, is, "I will mal-treat or defraud that man, for, had he it in his power, he would act the fame part by me; for are not all men alike?" There is the more neceffity of guarding against this, and no lefs against that felfdeception which induces mankind to palliate their faults to themfelves; as, whether fympathy operates as it ought or not, there is always fomething like it at work in the mind. This is that fort of plaftick power in the fancy, by which every perfon, I believe, when figuring to himfelf an abfent perfon, whom he has not feen, but expects to fee, always gives the picture a fort of refemblance to himfelf, both in outward lineaments and difpofition. If we could combine the idea of high intellectual powers, joined with the utmost depravity, we might conceive a mixture of malignity and pride, which might prefume to attribute its own hideous character to the Supreme Being. In fact, this often has been the cafe in fome degree in the ancient world, and fill is where idolatry and fanaticism prevail. This, or fomewhat like it, feems to be what the poet means to reprefent in the characters of Beelzebub and of Satan himself; it may at leaft probably account for the feeming extravagance of fome of the fentiments expreffed here and in other parts of the poem where thefe characters are introduced; or, if it even shows the origin and progrefs of fome pernicious habits in the mind, from the prevalence of one grand fource of moral evil, the obfervation may not be quite ufelefs. It is obfervable, that not only at this period of their mifery, but at first, the fuppofed tyranny or arbitrary government of the Supreme Being, is affigned firft as a fufficient excufe for ingratitude and rebellion; and, after their overthrow, it is pleaded as a just reason for retaliation and revenge. In the fame manner here, a fancied flight, even from a benefactor, is often, to a depraved mind, made a plea for the most bitter and perfevering refentment. BOYD. * See Book v. and vi |