: ge the world are unanimous in the praise of his nerofity there is only one fort of people who complain of his conduct. Lyfippus does not pay his debts. IT is no difficult matter to account for a conduct fo feemingly incompatible with itself. There is greatnefs in being generous, and there is only fimple justice in fatisfying his creditors. Generofity is the part of a foul raised above the vulgar. There is in it fomething of what we admire in heroes, and praise with a degree of rapture. Juftice, on the contrary, is a mere mechanick virtue, only fit for tradefmen, and what is practifed by every broker in Change-alley. IN paying his debts, a man barely does his duty, and it is an action attended with no fort of glory, Should Lyfippus fatisfy his creditors, who would be at the pains of telling it to the world? Generofity is a virtue of a very different com plexion. It is raifed above duty; and from its elevation, attracts the attention and the praises of us little mortals below.. In this manner do men generally reafon upon juftice and generofity. The firft is defpifed, though a virtue effential to the good of fociety, and the other attracts our esteem, which too fre quently proceeds from an impetuofity of temper, rather directed by vanity than reafon. Lyfippus is told that his banker afks a debt of forty pounds, and that a diftreffed acquaintance peti tions for the fame fum. He gives it without hefitating to the latter; for he demands as a favour what the former requires as a debt. MANKIND, MANKIND, in general, are not fufficiently ac quainted with the import of the word Justice: It is commonly believed to confift only in a performance of those duties to which the laws of fociety can oblige us. This, I allow, is fometimes the import of the word; and in this fenfe, justice is diftinguished from equity: but there is a juftice ftill more extenfive, and which can be shown to embrace all the virtues united. JUSTICE may be defined, that virtue which im pels us to give to every person what is his due. In this extended fenfe of the word, it comprehends the practice of every virtue which reafon prefcribes, or fociety fhould expect. Our duty to our Maker, to each other, and to ourselves, are fully anfwered, if we give them what we owe them. Thus juftice, properly fpeaking, is the only virtue and all the reft have their origin in it. THE qualities of candour, fortitude, charity, and generosity, for instance, are not, in their own nature, virtues; and, if ever they deferve the title, it is owing only to justice, which impels and directs them. Without fuch a moderator, candour might become indifcretion; fortitude, obftinacy; charity, imprudence; and generofity, mistaken profufion. A DISINTERESTED action, if it be not conducted by justice, is, at best, indifferent in its nature, and not unfrequently even turns to vice. The expences of fociety, of prefents, of entertainments, and the other helps to chearfulness, are actions merely indifferent, when not repugnant to a better method of difpofing of our fuperfluities; but they they become vicious when they obftruct or exhauft our abilities from a more virtuous difpofition of our circumstances. TRUE generofity is a duty as indifpenfibly neceffary as thofe impofed upon us by law. It is a rule impofed upon us by reason, which fhould be the fovereign law of a rational being. But this generofity does not confift in obeying every impulfe of humanity, in following blind paffion for our guide, and impairing our circumftances by prefent benefactions, fo as to render us incabable of future ones. MISERS are generally characterized as men without honour, or without humanity, who live only to accumulate, and to this paffion facrifice every other happiness. They have been defcribed as madmen, who, in the midf of abundance, banifh every pleasure, and make, from imaginary wants, real neceffities. But few, very few, correfpond to this exaggerated picture; and perhaps, there is not one in whom all thefe circumftances are found united. Inftead of this, we find the fober and the induftrious branded by the vain and the idle with this odious appellation. Men who, by frugality and labour, raise themfelves above their equals, and contribute their share of industry to the common stock. WHATEVER the vain or the ignorant may fay, well were it for fociety, had we more of thefe characters amongst us. In general, thefe clofe men are found at laft the true benefactors of fociety. With an avaricious man we feldom lofe in our dealings, but too frequently in our commerce with prodigality. A FRENCH A FRENCH prieft, whofe name was Godinot, went for a long time by the name of the Griper. He refused to relieve the most apparent wretchednefs, and, by a fkilful management of his vine yard, had the good fortune to acquire immenfe fums of money. The inhabitants of Rheims, whỏ were his fellow-citizens, detefted him; and the pppulace, who feldom love a miser, wherever he went, followed him with fhouts of contempt. He ftill, however, continued his former fimplicity of life, his amazing and unremitted frugality. He had long perceived the wants of the poor in the city, particularly, in having no water but what they were obliged to buy at any advanced price; wherefore, that whole fortune which he had been amaffing he laid out in an aqueduct; by which, he did the poor more useful and lafting service, than if he had diftributed his whole income in charity every day at his door. AMONG men long converfant with books, we too frequently find thofe mifplaced virtues, of which I have been now complaining. We find the ftudious animated with a strong paffion for great virtues, as they are mistakenly called, and utterly forgetful of the ordinary ones. The declamations of philofophy are generally rather exhausted on thofe fupererogatory duties, than on fuch as are indifpenfibly neceffary. A man, therefore, who has taken his ideas of mankind from ftudy alone, generally comes into the world with an heart melting at every fictitious distress. Thus, he is induced, by mifplaced liberality, to put himself into the indigent circumstances of the perfon he relieves. I SHALL I SHALL conclude this paper with the advice of one of the ancients, to a young man whom he faw giving away all his fubftance to pretended diftrefs. "It is poffible, that the perfon you re"lieve may be an honeft man; and I know that ❝ you, who relieve him, are fuch. You fee, then, "by your generofity, that you rob a man, who " is certainly deserving, to bestow it on one who may poffibly be a rogue; and, while you are "unjuft, in rewarding uncertain merit, you are "doubly guilty, by ftripping yourself." ESS A Y VII. N. B. This treatife was published before Rouffeau's Emilius; if there be a fimilitude in any one inftance, it is hoped the author of the prefent Effay will not be deemed a plagiarist. As few fubjects are more interefting to focie ty, fo few have been more frequently written upon, than the education of youth. Yet, it is a little furprizing, that it has been treated almost by all in a declamatory manner. They have infitted largely on the advantages that refult from it, both to individuals and to fociety; and have expatiated in the praise of what none have ever been fo hardy as to call in queftion. INSTEAD of giving us fine but empty harangues upon this fubject; inftead of indulging each his particular and whimsical fyftems, it had been much better |