Generofity. Juftice. Mifplaced Virtues of Godinot, a French Prieft

LYSIPPUS is a man whofe grea

the whole world admires. His fuch, that it prevents a demand, and ceiver the trouble and the confufion of a liberality alfo does not oblige more by than by his inimitable grace in giving. he even diftributes his bounties to strang been known to do good offices to those w themselves his enemies. All the worl mous in the praise of his generofity: t one fort of people who complain of b Lyfippus does not pay his debts.

It is no dificult matter to account for a feemingly incompatible with itself. The nefs in being generous, and there is only tice in fatisfying his creditors. Gener part of a foul raised above the vulgar. it fomething of what we admire in heroes, with a degree of rapture. Juftice, on the a mere mechanic virtue, only fit for trade what is practifed by every broker in Chan

In paying his debts, a man barely does and it is an action attended with no fort Should Lyfippus fatisfy his creditors, who at the pains of telling it to the world? Ge a virtue of a very different complexion. I above duty; and from its elevation, attra

In this manner do men generally reason upon juftice and generofity. The firft is despised, though a virte effential to the good of fociety, and the other attracts our efteem, which too frequently proceeds from an impetuofity of temper, rather directed by vanity than reason. Lyfippus is told that his banker asks a debt of forty pounds, and that a distressed acquaintance petitions 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, in general, are not fufficiently acquainted with the import of the word justice: it is commonly believed to confist only in a performance. of thofe duties to which the laws of fociety can oblige us. This, I allow, is fometimes the import of the word: and in this fenfe, juftice is diftinguished from equity: but there is a juftice ftill more extenfive, and which can be shown to embrace all the virtues united.

Juftice may be defined, that virtue which impels 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 prescribes, or fociety should expect. Our duty to our Maker, to each other, and to oufelves, are fully anfwered, if we give them what we owe them. Thus juftice, properly speaking, is the only virtue and all the reft have their origin in it.

The qualities of candour, fortitude, charity, and generofity, for instance, are not, in their own nature, virtues; and, if ever they deserve the title, it is owing only to juftice, which impels and directs them. Without fuch a moderator, candour might become

indifcretion; fortitude, obftinacy; charity, imprudence; and generofity, miftaken profufion.

A difinterested action, if it be not conducted by nice, is, at beft, indifferent in its nature, and not unfrequently even turns to vice. The expences of fociety, of prefents, of entertainments, and the other helps to cheerfulness, are actions merely indifferent, when not repugnant to a better method of difpofing of our fuperfluities; but they become vicious when they obftruct or exhaust our abilities, from a more virtucus 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 reafon, which fhould be the fo vereign law of a rational being. But this generofit does not confist in obeying every impulse of humanity, in following blind paffion for our guide, and impairing our circumstances by present benefactions, fo as to render us incapable of future ones.

Mifers 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 described as madmen, who, in the midst of abundance, banish every plea sure, and make from imaginary wants, real neceffi ties. But few, very few, correfpond to this exaggerated picture; and perhaps, there is not one in whom all these circumftances are found united. Inftead of this, we find the fober and induftrious branded by the vain and the idle with this odious appellation; men who, by frugality and labour, raife themfelves above their equals, and contribute their share of induftry to the common stock. What

Whatever the vain or the ignorant may fay, well were it for fociety, had we more of thefe characters amongst us. In general, thefe close men are found at laft the true benefactors of fociety. With an avaritious man we feldom lofe in our dealings, but too frequently in our commerce with prodigality.

A French priest, whose name was Godinot, went for a long time by the name of the Griper. He refused to relieve the moft apparent wretchedness, and, by a skilful management of his vineyard, had the good fortune to acquire immenfe fums of money. The inhabitants of Rheims, who were his fellowcitizens, detefted him; and the populace, 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 an advanced price: wherefore, that whole fortune which he had been amaffing, he laid out in an aquedu&t; by which he did the poor more useful and lafting fervice, 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 ftrong paffion for the 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 indispensably neceffary.

ceffary. 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 diftrefs. Thus he is induced, by misplaced liberality, to put himself into the indigent circumftances of the perfon he relieves.

I shall conclude this paper with the advice of one of the ancients, to a young man whom he saw giving away all his fubftance to pretended diftrefs. "It is poffible, that the perfon you relieve may be 66 an honest man; and I know that you, who re"lieve him, are fuch. You fee, then, by your

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generofity, that you rob a man, who is certainly deferving, to bestow it on one who may poffibly "be a rogue; and, while you are unjuft, in re"warding uncertain merit, you are doubly guilty, "by ftripping yourself.”

On Education of Youth. The Schoolmafters.

N. B. This treatife was published before Rouffeau's Emilius. If there be a fimilitude in any one in ftance, it is hoped the author of the prefent Effay will not be deemed a plagiarist.

S few fubjects are more interefting to fociety, fo, few have been more frequently written upon, than the education of youth. Yet, it is a little furprising, that it has been treated, almost by

all,