" This certainly is not commonplace morality. It
is very original. It shows at least (and it is for this purpose we
produce it) that no two things can be more different than the Heroic and
the Christian characters.
Now the author to whom I refer has not only marked this difference more
strongly than any preceding writer, but has proved, in contradiction to
first impressions, to popular opinion, to the encomiums of orators and
poets, and even to the suffrages of historians and moralists, that the
latter character possesses the most of true worth, both as being most
difficult either to be acquired or sustained, and as contributing most
to the happiness and tranquillity of social life. The state of his
argument is as follows:
I. If this disposition were universal, the case is clear; the world
would be a society of friends. Whereas, if the other disposition were
universal, it would produce a scene of universal contention. The world
could not hold a generation of such men.
II. If, what is the fact, the disposition be partial; if a few be
actuated by it, amongst a multitude who are not; in whatever degree it
does prevail, in the same proportion it prevents, allays, and terminates
quarrels, the great disturbers of human happiness, and the great sources
of human misery, so far as man's happiness and misery depend upon man.
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