CHAP. IV. to our fober judgment, appears to be best and most approvable? That we ought to be firm and steady in adhering to fuch refolutions, while we are perfuaded that they are right; but open to conviction, and ready to change our courfe, when we have good evidence that it is wrong?

Fickleness, inconftancy, facility, on the one hand, wilfulness, inflexibility, and obftinacy, on the other, are moral qualities, respecting our purposes, which every one fees to be wrong. A manly firmness, grounded upon rational conviction, is the pro per mean which every man approves and reveres.

FRO

CHA P. IV.

Corollaries.

ROM what has been faid concerning the will, it appears, firft, That, as fome acts of the will are tranfient and momentary, fo others are permanent, and may continue for a long time, or even through the whole courfe of our rational life.

When I will to ftretch out my hand, that will is at an end as foon as the action is done. It is an act of the will which begins and ends in a moment. But when I will to attend to a mathematical propofition, to examine the demonftration, and the confequences that may be drawn from it, this will may continue for hours. It must continue as long as my attention con, tinues; for no man attends to a mathematical propofition longer than he wills.

The fame thing may be faid of deliberation, with regard, either to any point of conduct, or with regard to any general

courfe

course of conduct. We will to deliberate as long as we do de- CHAP. IV. liberate; and that may be for days or for weeks.

A purpose or refolution, which we have fhewn to be an act of the will, may continue for a great part of life, or for the whole, after we are of age to form a refolution.

Thus, a merchant may resolve, that, after he has made fuch a fortune by traffic, he will give it up, and retire to a country life. He may continue this refolution for thirty or forty years, and execute it at laft; but he continues it no longer than he wills, for he may at any time change his refolution.

There are therefore acts of the will which are not transient and momentary, which which may continue long, and grow into a habit. This deferves the more to be obferved, because a very eminent Philofopher has advanced a contrary principle, to wit, That all the acts of the will are tranfient and momentary; and from that principle has drawn very important conclufions, with regard to what conftitutes the moral character of man.

A fecond corollary is, That nothing in a man, wherein the will is not concerned, can juftly be accounted either virtuous or immoral.

That no blame can be imputed to a man for what is altogether involuntary, is fo evident in itself, that no arguments can make it more evident. The practice of all criminal courts, in all enlightened nations, is founded upon it.

If it should be thought an objection to this maxim, that, by the laws of all nations, children often fuffer for the crimes of parents, in which they had no hand, the answer is eafy.

For, firft, Such is the connection between parents and children,

that

CHAP. IV. that the punishment of a parent must hurt his children whether the law will or not. If a man is fined, or imprisoned; if he lofes life, or limb, or eftate, or reputation, by the hand of justice, his children fuffer by neceffary confequence. Secondly, When laws intend to appoint any punishment of innocent children for the father's crime, fuch laws are either unjuft, or they are to be confidered as acts of police, and not of jurisprudence, and are intended as an expedient to deter parents more effectually from the commiffion of the crime. The innocent children, in this cafe, are facrificed to the public good, in like manner, as, to prevent the spreading of the plague, the found are shut up with the infected in a house or ship, that has the infection.

By the law of England, if a man is killed by an ox goring him, or a cart running over him, though there be no fault or neglect in the owner, the ox or the cart is a deodand, and is confifcated to the Church. The Legislature furely did not intend to punish the ox as a criminal, far lefs the cart. The intention evidently was, to inspire the people with a facred regard to the life of man.

When the Parliament of Paris, with a fimilar intention, ordained the house in which Ravilliac was born, to be razed to the ground, and never to be rebuilt, it would be great weakness to conclude, that the wife judicature intended to punish the house.

If any judicature should, in any instance, find a man guilty, and an object of punishment, for what they allowed to be altogether involuntary, all the world would condemn them as men. who knew nothing of the first and most fundamental rules of justice.

I have endeavoured to fhew, that, in our attention to objects, in order to form a right judgment of them; in our deliberation about particular actions, or about general rules of conduct; in

our

our purposes and refolutions, as well as in the execution of them, CHAP. IV. the will has a principal fhare. If any man could be found, who, in the whole course of his life, had given due attention to things that concern him, had deliberated duly and impartially about his conduct, had formed his refolutions, and executed them according to his beft judgment and capacity, furely fuch a man might hold up his face before GOD and man, and plead innocence. He must be acquitted by the impartial Judge, whatever his natural temper was, whatever his paffions and affections, as far as they were involuntary.

A third corollary is, That all virtuous habits, when we diftinguish them from virtuous actions, confift in fixed purposes of acting according to the rules of virtue, as often as we have opportunity.

We can conceive in a man a greater or a lefs degree of steadinefs to his purposes or refolutions; but that the general tenor of his conduct should be contrary to them, is impoffible.

The man who has a determined refolution to do his duty in every instance, and who adheres fteadily to his refolution, is a perfect man. The man who has a determined purpose of carrying on a courfe of action which he knows to be wrong, is a hardened offender. Between these extremes there are many intermediate degrees of virtue and vice.

ESSAY