own Eyes, when they refer themselves to the Opinion and Approbation of those who have none?

This blind Attachment to Things and Perfons tends gradually to deftroy the very Notions of Right and Wrong, and to render Virtue and common Honefty of little or no Significancy in public Affairs. The lower Part of the World foon grows to be infenfible of the Difference; and by an Habit of following a falfe Rule of judging, they become incapable of making ufe of the true one. And when defigning Men obferve, that by doing right they cannot please their Adverfaries, by doing wrong they cannot offend their Friends, they will foon disregard a Diftinction, of fo little Ufe either to their Intereft or Reputation. And hence proceeds that Hardness of Mind, which no Reafon, no Conviction can fubdue.

How fatal an Influence this must have upon the Virtue and Morality of any People, will appear by following this Evil a few Steps further into fome of its natural and obvious Confequences.

2. One great Guard to Virtue, and placed in the Minds of Men by the Hand that formed them, is the Senfe of Shame when

we do ill; of the fame Kind, and a Twin of the fame Birth, is the Pleasure arifing from the Praise of having done well. When Men, through the Corruptness of their own Hearts, get rid of these natural Impreffions, they are, in the Opinion of the World, profligate and abandoned. Of this Kind

the Inftances are but few. But then, to make their natural Paffions of any Service to us, they must be kept true to their proper Objects, Good and Evil; and whenever the Judgment is fo corrupted as to lose Sight of this Difference, the Love of Praife and the Fear of Shame will become not merely useless, but mifchievous and deftructive. And this must be the Cafe, whenever a falfe Standard of Reputation is fet up. And when a Nation or Kingdom is divided, Honour and Reputation will be dealt out by a falfe Measure, and fall to their Share, who are beft able, or moft forward, to ferve and promote the Measures of the intemperate Zeal, which poffeffes the one or the other Part of the Divifion. Thus true Honour and Virtue are robbed of their natural Forces; and the Senfe of Shame and of Praise are feduced into the Service of a Faction; and so far perverted, as oftentimes to

prove Motives to Actions bafe and dishonourable.

3. When Praise and Reproaches are diftributed with fo little Juftice, it has another very ill Effect in hardening Men against Reproach, even when they deserve it most. Reproach, when it falls indifcriminately on the beft and the worst, lofes its proper Effect; and bad Men will take Advantage of the ill Judgment of the World in abufing the best, to despise all Cenfure, how justly foever paffed on themselves. This will by Degrees make Men infenfible of the Pleafure of doing brave and generous Actions for the good of their Country; they will grow fteeled and obdurate in their Minds, and, with a profligate Contempt of the Opinion of the World, enter calmly and without Remorse into any Mischief, to which Intereft, Revenge, or any other mean Paf fion, fhall invite them.

4. It is a farther Aggravation of this Evil, to confider, that this infamous Conduct feldom fails of being fuccefsful. When the Malignity of inteftine Divifion is far spread, it becomes a Shelter for all Iniquity. Party Zeal ufurps the Place of Chriftian Charity, and covers a Multitude of Sins.

And

And when once Men find that there is fo fhort a Way to Credit and Efteem, they will be tempted, through Laziness, and a natural Depravity, which will be ever ready to lay hold on fuch Encouragement, to decline the honourable and laborious Methods of rifing to Reputation in the World, and to trust their Hopes and their Fortunes to the Merit of their Zeal; which Hopes feldom fail them. For,

5. As Credit and Reputation, the natural Rewards of Virtue, are perverted and mifapplied by the blind Spirit of Divifion; fo are the Rewards which the Public has provided and deftined to the Encouragement of true Merit, diverted into a wrong Channel: the worthieft are often driven into Obfcurity, and others called into Employments and Preferments, in which they can do themselves no Honour, their Country na Service.

There is not a Place in Church or State of fo mean a Confideration, but that the Public has an Intereft in having it fupplied by a proper, and, in proportion to the Duty of the Office, an able Man. When this is the Cafe, the Work of Government is carried on regularly and steadily, and the Influences

fluences of it are duly communicated, and felt in every Part: as the Blood, which moves from the Heart, cherishes and warms the extreme Parts of the Body, as long as the little Veffels which convey it are in due Order: but if these fmall Channels are obftructed, or lose their proper Tone, Coldnefs and Numbnefs will enfue, and fometimes greater Evils, not to be borne, nor to be cured but by the Lofs of a Limb.

These are the Steps by which Divifion corrupts the Manners and Morality of a Nation. And what Hopes are there of feeing a People grow great and confiderable, who have loft not only the Senfe of Virtue, but even the Senfe of Shame; who call Evil Good, and Good Evil; and are prepared to facrifice their Reason, their true Interest, the Peace and Profperity of their Country, to their own and their Leaders Refentments? Can it be expected that Men fhould form themselves by a virtuous and laborious Course of Life for the Service of a Country, where real Worth and Merit are fo far out of Confideration, that the Affections and Regards of the People are tied, like the Favour of the Roman Circus, to the Colour of the Coat which diftinguishes their Faction.

Thefe