Lifes Progress Through the Passions | Page 8

_vice_?--Even devotion itself should have its bounds, or it will launch
into bigotry and _enthusiasm_;--love, the most generous and gentle of
all the passions, when ill-placed, or unprescribed, degenerates into the
very _worst_;--justice may be pursued till it becomes
_cruelty_;--emulation indulged till it grows up to _envy_;--frugality to
the most sordid _avarice_; and courage to a brutal _rashness_;--and so
I am ready to allow that curiosity, from whence all the good in us
originally arises, may also be productive of the greatest mischiefs,
when not, like every other emotion of the soul, kept within its due
limits, and suffered to exert itself only on warrantable objects.
It should therefore be the first care of every one to regulate this
propensity in himself, as well as of those under whose tuition he may
happen to be, whether parents or governors.--Nature, and the writings
of learned men, who from time to time have commented on all that has
happened in nature, certainly afford sufficient matter to gratify the most
enquiring mind, without descending to such mean trifling inquisitions,
as can no way improve itself, and may be of prejudice to others.
I have dwelt the longer on this head, because it seems to me, that on the
well, or ill direction of that curiosity, which is inherent to us all,
depends, in a great measure, the peace and happiness of society.
Natura, like all children, uncircumscribed by precept, had not only a
desire of prying into those things which it was his advantage to know,
but also into those which he had much better have been totally ignorant
of, and which the discovery of his being too well skilled in, frequently
occasioned him much ill will, especially when he was found to have
too far dived into those little secrets which will ever be among servants
in large families. But reason was not ripe enough in him to enable him
to distinguish between what were proper subjects for the exercise of
this passion, and what were not so.
That impediment, however, which had hitherto retarded his departure
being removed, he now set out for Eton, under the conduct of the
abovementioned kinsman, who placed him in a boarding-house very
near the school, and took his leave, after having given him such

admonitions as he thought necessary for a person of his years, when
more intrusted to himself than he before had been.
But Natura was not yet arrived at an age wherein it could be expected
he should reap much benefit from advice. A settled resolution, and the
power of judging what is our real interest to do, are the perfections of
maturity, and happy is it for the few who even then attain
them.--Precept must be constantly and artfully instilled to make any
impression on the mind, and is rarely fixed there, till experience
confirms it; therefore, as both these were wanting to form his behaviour,
what could be hoped from it, but such a one as was conformable to the
various passions which agitate human nature, and which every day
grow stronger in us, at least till they have attained a certain crisis, after
which they decay, in proportion as they increased.
As wrath is one of the most violent emotions of the soul, so I think it is
one of the first that breaks out into effects: it owes its birth indeed to
_pride_; for we are never angry, unless touched by a real, or imaginary
insult; but, by the offspring chiefly is the parent seen. Pride seldom, I
believe it may be said, never, wholly dies in us, tho' it may be
concealed; whereas wrath diminishes as our reason increases, and
seems intirely evaporated after the heat of youth is over: when a man
therefore has divested himself of the one, no tokens are left to
distinguish the other.--Sometimes, indeed, we shall see an extreme
impetuosity, even to old age, but then, it is out of the ordinary course of
nature, and besides, the person possessed of it must be endued with a
small share of sound understanding, to give any marks of such a
propensity remaining in him.
It is with the utmost justice, that by the system of the christian religion,
pride is intitled the original sin, not only as it was that of the fallen
angels, but also as it is certainly the fountain-head from which all our
other vices are derived.--It is by the dictates of this pernicious passion
we are inflamed with wrath, and wild ambition,--instigated to
covetousness,--to envy,--to revenge, and in fine, to stop at nothing
which tends to self-gratification, be our desires of what kind soever.
During the school hours, Natura, as well as the other young gentlemen,

was under too much awe of the master to give any loose to his temper;