had not counted on a contest with his sympathy for dogs. Here he was unprepared. He had left an opening, of which he was not aware, in the Chinese wall which he had built around his natural feelings of commiseration. He could meet the grief of mothers, and the lamentations of orphans, and the despair of widows, as the rock meets the dashing of the ocean, and remain unmoved; but with all this premeditated and immoveable induration of heart, the fact still remains, explainable only in the way which has been intimated, that his firmness was shaken and his spirit troubled by the humble sorrows of a mourning brute animal.

◊ 205. The objection to the extent of the law of habit further considered. In forming a conclusion on this subject, we are to consider, furthermore, the results which would follow on the adoption of those views which we have thus seen reason to object to. In the case of physicians, for instance, it would seem to follow universally, that they must, as they advance in life, become an unfeeling and hard-hearted race of men. But the facts, as we have already had occasion to intimate, are far from warranting us in making any such assertion. Men who are naturally of decidedly kind and smypathetic feelings, and who, under the impulse of such feelings, are in the habit of visiting the chambers of the sick and the dungeon of the prisoner, and in whom, of course, painful feelings must almost constantly be in exercise, would be subject, on this doctrine, to a sure and rapid process of sensitive induration. Howard himself, who spent his life amid scenes of suffering, must, on a strict and philosophical application of this system, have become, at last, one of the most hard-hearted of men. But this does not seem to have been the fact. On the contrary, his desire to relieve suffering appears to have grown stronger and stronger till the last moments of life.

There are a considerable number of men at the present day, who, with no small portion of Howard's spirit, have left their native country, and the endearments and charities of home, that they may relieve the physical sufferings, and enlighten the mental darkness of their fellow

men.

The hearts of these men, according to their own

accounts, are continually pained with the view of vices and sufferings that are constantly presented to their notice. No other emotion than a painful one can possibly arise in the view of these vices and sufferings, in themselves considered. But on the system, some of the results of which we are endeavouring to indicate, these painful emotions will necessarily, after a time, cease to exist. And as the affection of Pity or Sympathy, as we have already had occasion to see, is based upon painful emotions, it will also become extinct with the extinction of these emotions. The heart will become sealed up, and its fountains of sorrow for the ruin which is witnessed, and of pity for the subjects of it, will be effectually closed.— These are the results in theory; but we do not hesitate to say, that, as a general thing, they are far from being the results in fact. These devoted men, to whose philanthropic toils we have alluded, still labour on, month after month and year after year, without either any diminution of their grief at witnessing the wide-spread sin and misery around them, or any decrease of that benevolence which prompts them to labour for its removal. On the contrary, as their life wears away, they appear to experience stronger emotions, and to put forth still more strenuous efforts.

206. The objection noticed in connexion with the malevolent affections.

A single remark more remains to be made. The exercise of the Malevolent affections is always painful. These affections are not only attended with pain, but, as was seen when they came under examination, they are in their nature based upon a painful emotion. And it is universally admitted that a resentful and malevolent state of mind is an exceedingly unhappy one. Now if we apply to this statement the doctrine which we are controverting, it will seem to follow, that the way to terminate and extinguish the Malevolent affections, inasmuch as they are painful, is to keep them in exercise. The more freely we let our disorderly tempers run on, the more prodigally we indulge in resentful and angry passions, the sooner will the atmosphere of the mind be cleared up; and, instead of clouds and darkness, shine forth in

the aspect of purity and peace.-But the idea that such 1 result can be secured by such a process is equally inconsistent, so far as we are able to judge, with philosophy, the Scriptures, and fact.

THE SENSIBILITIES.

PART SECOND.

THE MORAL SENSIBILITIES, OR CONSCIENCE.

MORAL OR CONSCIENTIOUS SENTIMENTS.

CLASS FIRST.

EMOTIONS OF APPROVAL AND DISAPPROVAL.

X 2