CHAPTER II.

SECOND PRINCIPLE OF MORAL ACTION-LOVE TO ALL SUBORDINATE INTELLIGENCES.

In the commencement of the last chapter, I had occasion to remark that, strictly speaking, the fundamental principle or affection which gives birth to all the ramifications of moral action, is but one, namely, Love. This noble affection may be considered as dividing itself into two great streams, one directing its course towards the Creator, as the Supreme source of all felicity, and the other expanding itself towards all the intellectual beings which he has formed.

Having, in the preceding pages, endeavoured to illustrate the foundation and the reasonableness of the principle of love to God, from a consideration of his perfections, character, and relations, and having described some of those kindred affec... tions by which its existence in the minds of moral agents is manifested, I shall now endeavour to exhibit the foundation, and the reasonableness, of that modification of love which is directed towards created intelligences, and which may be termed the second principle of moral action—THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF. Taking it for granted that this is the fundamental law prescribed by the Creator for regulating the conduct of intelligent beings towards each other -because the Supreme Lawgiver has proclaimed it as such in the revelation which he has given us of his will-I shall endeavour to exhibit the reasonableness and the beauty of this amiable principle-from the nature of man, and the relations in which all the individuals of the human race stand to each other-from the happiness which would flow from the uniform operation of this principle-and from the misery which would inevitably ensue were it completely eradicated from the minds of moral agents.

Before proceeding to the illustration of these particulars, it may be proper to remark, that by "our neighbour" is to be understood men of every nation and of every clime, whether they avow themselves as our friends or our enemies, and whatever may be their language, their religion, their rank, or station. The inhabitants of New Zealand, of Patagonia, of New Holland, of the Ladrones, of Kamtschatka, or of Greenland,

are our neighbours, in the sense intended in the divine injunction above quoted, as well as those who reside in our own nation and in our more immediate neighbourhood. For with all these, and other tribes of mankind, we may happen to have intercourses, either directly or indirectly, and towards them all we ought to exercise an affection analogous to that which every man exercises towards himself. This we are decisively taught by our Saviour in the parable of the good Samaritan, in which it is clearly shown, that under the designation of neighbour, we are to include even our bitterest enemies. His Apostles avowed the same sentiment, and taught, that in the bonds of Christian love, no distinction should exist between "Jews and Greeks, Barbarians, Scythians, bond or free." For they are all members of the great family of God, and recognized as children by the universal parent.

SECTION I.

The Natural Equality of Mankind considered as the basis of Love to our Neighbour.

I SHALL now exhibit a few considerations founded on the Natural Equality of Mankind, in order to evince the reasonableness and the necessity of the operation of the principle of love towards all our fellow-men.

In the first place, men of whatever rank, kindred, or tribe, are the offspring of the great Parent of the universe. They were all created by the same Almighty being, and to him they are indebted for all the members and functions of their animal frames, and for those powers, capacities, and endowments, which render them superior to the clods of the valley and to the beasts of the forest. They derived their origin too, as to their bodies, from the same physical principles and from the same earthly parent. "Of the dust of the ground" the body of the first man was formed; and from Adam, the primogenitor of the human race, have descended all the generations of men which now exist, or will hereafter exist till the close of time. This is equally true of the prince and of his subjects; of the monarch arrayed in purple, and seated on a throne, and of the beggar, who is clothed in rags, and embraces a dunghill; of the proud nobleman, who boasts of a long line of illustrious ancestors, and of the obscure peasant, whose progenitors were unnoticed and unknown. All derived their origin from the

dust, and all return to the dust again. This consideration, on which it is unnecessary to dwell, shows the reasonableness of union and affection among men, on the same grounds from which we conclude that brothers and sisters belonging to the same family ought to manifest a friendly affection for each

other.

Secondly, men of all nations and ranks are equal in respect to the mechanism of their bodies and the mental faculties with which they are endowed. Whether their bodies be rudely covered with the skins of beasts, or adorned with the splendours of royalty; whether they be exposed naked to the scorching heats and piercing colds, or arrayed in robes of silk and crimson-in their construction and symmetry they equally bear the impress of infinite wisdom and omnipotence. The body of the meanest peasant, who earns his scanty subsistence from day to day by the sweat of his brow, is equally admirable, in the motions of its fingers, the structure of its limbs, and the connexion and uses of its several functions, as the body of the mightiest and the proudest baron who looks down upon him with contempt. The organs of vision comprise as many coats and humours, muscular fibres, and lymphatic ducts, and form as delicate pictures upon the retina-the bones are equally numerous, and as accurately articulated-the muscles perform their functions with as great precision and facility—the lymphatic and absorbent vessels are as numerous and incessant in their operations--and the heart impels the blood through a thousand veins and arteries with as great a degree of rapidity and of purity in the corporeal frame of a poor African slave, who is daily smarting under the lash of an unfeeling planter, as in the body of the Emperor of China, who sways his sceptre over half the inhabitants of the globe. All the external trappings which fascinate the vulgar eye, and by which the various ranks of mankind are distinguished, are merely adventitious, and have no necessary connexion with the intrinsic dignity of man. They are part of the consequences of the depravity of our species: in most instances they are the results of vanity, folly, pride, and frivolity; and they constitute no essential distinction between man and man; for a few paltry guineas would suffice to deck the son of a peasant with all the ornaments of a peer.

Men are also nearly on a level in respect to the mental faculties which they possess. Every man, however low his station in the present world, is endowed with a spiritual principle which he received by "the inspiration of the Almighty," which is superior to all the mechanism and modifications of

matter, and by which he is allied to beings of a superior order. The faculties of consciousness, perception, memory, conception, imagination, judgment, reasoning, and moral feeling, are common to men of all casts and nations. The power of recollecting the past, and of anticipating the future-of deducing conclusions from premises previously demonstrated—of representing to the mind objects and scenes which have long ceased to exist; of forming in the imagination new combinations of the objects of sense; of perceiving the qualities of moral actions, and distinguishing between right and wrong; of recognizing a supreme intelligent Agent in the movements of the universe, and of making perpetual advances in knowledge and felicity; faculties which distinguish man from all the other tribes which people the earth, air, or sea, are possessed by the dwarfish Laplander and the untutored peasant, as well as by the ruler of kingdoms, the enlightened statesman, and the man of science. It is true, indeed, that there is a mighty difference among men in the direction of these faculties, in the objects towards which they are directed, in the cultivation they have received, and in the degree of perfection to which they have attained. There are innumerable gradations in the improvement and the energies of intellect, from the narrow range of thought possessed by a Greenlander or an Esquimaux, to the sublime and expansive views of a Bacon or a Newton. But, this difference depends more on the physical and moral circumstances in which they are placed than on any intrinsic difference in the faculties themselves. Place the son of a boor or of a Laplander in circumstances favourable to the developement of his mental powers, and afford him the requisite means for directing and increasing their activity, and he will display powers of intelligence equal to those which are found in the highest ranks of civilized life. A sound understanding, a correct judgment, vigour of mind, control over the irascible passions, and other mental endowments, though destitute of polish, will as frequently be found in the lower walks of life as in the elevated ranks of opulence and power.

The philosopher, however, as well as the man of rank, is apt to look down with a contemptuous sneer on the narrow conceptions of the husbandman, the mechanic, and the peasant; and is disposed to treat them as if they were an inferior species of intelligent beings. He does not always consider that the profound and the subtle speculations, which are dignified with the title of philosophy, are frequently of less importance to the progress of the human mind, and to the enjoyment of substantial comfort, than the deductions of common sense and

the dictates of a sound, though plain understanding; that they torment him with feelings, doubts, and perplexities, which sometimes shake the whole fabric of his knowledge, and lead him into labyrinths, out of which he can scarcely extricate his way; while the man of plain understanding, guided by a few certain and important points of truth, prosecutes the path of virtue with safety and success. For it may be considered as an established maxim, that the most interesting and salutary truths connected with the happiness of man are neither numerous nor difficult to be acquired, and are level to the comprehension of men of every nation and of every rank. But however grovelling may be the affections, and however limited the intellectual views of the untutored ranks of society, they are capable of being trained to the knowledge and the practice of every thing which regards their present comfort and their future happiness; and to devise and execute the means by which this object may be accomplished, is one way among many others by which our love to mankind should be displayed and demonstrated. We have no reason to complain of the want of mental energy, or of the ignorance and folly of the lower orders of mankind, and to despise them on this account, while we sit still in criminal apathy, and refuse to apply those means which are requisite to raise them from their state of moral and intellectual degradation.

Thirdly, mankind are on an equality, in respect of that moral depravity with which they are all infected. From whatever cause it may be conceived to have originated, the fact is certain, that a moral disease has spread itself through all the branches of the human family, in whatever station, or in whatever regions of the globe they may be placed. Whether we look back on the "generations of old," or survey the moral state of the nations in modern times; whether we turn our eyes to the abodes of savage or of civilized life; whether we contemplate the characters of the higher orders of society, or the practices which abound among the inferior ranks of social life; the stamp of depravity, in one shape or another, appears impressed upon the general conduct of mankind. In the case of nations, this depravity has manifested itself in those wars, dissensions, devastations, and contentions for territory and power, which have in all ages convulsed the human race and disturbed the peace of the world. Among lesser societies, families and, individuals, it is displayed in the operation of the principles of pride, ambition, tyranny, persecution, revenge, malice, envy, falsehood, deceit, covetousness, anger, and other malignant passions, which have infested all ranks and condi