fenfations that are at once imperfect and obfcure. If we would accompany others in their train of reflections, or follow them in their arguments: then we must place ourselves, as it were, in the orbit of their view, and thus alter or enlarge our own. If we be defirous that others fhould readily communicate their reflections to us: then muft we let them fee that we perceive the truth and juftnefs of them, and must repay them by fome equivalent thoughts of our own. Generally speaking, in focial life we barter our experiences; our perceptions, our knowledge, against thofe of others, while all are gainers by this fpecies of traffic, not excepting even him who gives far more than he receives; becaufe we can never teach others, without learning ourselves, and because every perfon in his line and circumstances has feen much, heard much, experienced much, confidered much, that another in a quite different line, and quite other circumftances, could not have seen, not have heard, not have experienced, and not have thought on. We there learn to fee things on new fides, unobferved by us before, in new connections and different relations; learn to judge of them more liberally, and therefore with lefs partiality and injuftice. We there meet with opportunities of freeing ourfelves from numberlefs prejudices againft certain ftations, or bufineffes, or pleasures, or modes of life, or other objects, by which fuch as live at too great a distance from the world are fhackled and led into mistake; we learn to compare more things together,

to

to comprehend more and to furvey more objects atonce, and thus likewife to judge more justly of the whole.

And how frequently, in focial life, does not one intellect rouze and excite another! How often one light kindle another, one brilliant thought elicit another! How oft does a fplendid ray of light, a vivid particle of celeftial fire, dart into a mind where darknefs and cold had fixed their reign, and awaken all its torpid powers to motion and activity! How often does even a penfive and enlightened head there find the folution of fome difficulty, or the clue to fome labyrinth of human thought, which it had long been feeking for in vain! And at what point does the series of reflections ftop, that a happy moment, an animated converfation with fome friend to truth, has once given rife to? What fentiment is there that does not beget a thousand others; which does not multiply itself a thousand-fold in every head that admits and comprehends it; which does not return upon the mind ten thousand times, as occafion offers, influencing its ideas and judgments! How frequently does it not happen, that fome juft and good fentiment, fome right and proper judgment, fome generous principle, fome important rule of prudence, fome pious fentiment or emotion, uttered by the wife man, the chriftian, in converfation with his brethren, how oft does it not fink, imperceptibly even to ourselves, into our hearts, and there germinate in concealment,

bear fruits of wisdom, of virtue, of happiness, in an increase of an hundred-fold! How oft does not fome good word of this kind enlighten, direct, animate, determine us, long after it was mentioned in familiar converfation, and to which we afterwards paid no farther regard, and now presents itself to us in all its energy and truth, as a friend, as a counsellor, as a guide! How manifold, in fhort, how copious are not the materials we there collect for our own reflections, which we may work up afterwards in retirement as our views and wants require! Certainly, if folitude be indifpenfable for giving juftnefs and foli. dity, firmness and confiftency, to our reflections; focial life is no lefs fo for adding to the number of their objects, for giving perfpicuity to them, and for rendering them ferviceable by their proper application.

A third circumstance with confers a great value on focial life is this: by it we are brought nearer to, gether, gain the affection, and learn how to obtain more reciprocal fatisfaction from each other. When a man lives remote from his fellow-creatures, he is apt to judge too harshly of them; feldom takes much interest in what concerns them, and his heart very often retires from them in proportion as he withdraws himself from their fociety and converfe. Humanity, human affairs, human mifery, human happiness, in general and in the aggregate are nothing more than barren ideas, frequently mere words, which leave the heart unmoved and cold, 'unlefs at the fame time

they

they present us with lively images of feveral particular perfons who fhare in this humanity, to whom these concerns are of confequence, who groan under this mifery, or rejoice in this happiness. These ideas only then become living motives to generous fentiments and actions. But this vivacity and this energy they can scarcely otherwise acquire than by means of focial life, and the clofer connection we thereby contract with our fellow-creatures. There alone we feel how much we all pcffefs in common; how little one man can dispense with the help of another; of how much value one is to the other; how important this link is of the great chain which embraces and holds them all together. There we mutually discover many good qualities, many happy difpofitions, many capa cities and abilities, much acutenefs and aptitude, which we did not fufpect in each other; and how much muft not this contribute to increase our reci

procal esteem and affection! How much generous fatisfaction procure us! 'There we frequently hear individuals of each condition, each age, each sex, each way of life, deliver fuch juft opinions, express fuch truly christian fentiments, and fee them conduct, themselves fo prudently, that our mind energetically feels its affinity, and our heart entirely fympathizes with them; and how clofely, how intimately must not this connect us together! How extenfively promote the cause of humanity and brotherly love!

In focial life we likewife learn to think more reafonably of the weakneffes, the failings, and the aber

rations of our fellow-mortals; we learn to confider them not only in and of themfelves but in relation to the particular individual, to the fituation and circumstances of that individual; we learn to judge of them by their grounds and occafions; we learn to compare them with the good that fo often counterbalances, nay, which so often outweighs them; and how much more difpofed must not this render us to each other, to bear and to pardon one another in chriftian love, and to admonish one another in meek. nefs of spirit!

By focial life we acquire more fociable difpofitions, tranfact more focial affairs, enjoy more focial pleafures and fatisfactions, encourage ourselves more by common profpects and expectations; and by all this we are undoubtedly brought much clofer together, into ftricter and more intimate connections, and are therefore, if we be well-difpofed and inclined, far more ready to serve and affift one another, and to promote our mutual happiness. To the calls of humanity, to the arguments of religion and christianity, are there fuperadded the particular impulfes of ac quaintance and frequent intercourfe, the facred impulfe of friendship, the impulfe of focial pleafures, and the common honour of fociety; and how much more muft not the united force of all these arguments and incentives effect in the man who does not harden his heart against them, than if he were reduced barely to follow the general and cold precepts of reafon!