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86 The philosopher Peregrinus (of whose life and death Lucian has lest us so entertaining an account) imposed, for a long time, on the credulous fimplicity of the Christians of Afia.

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CHAP.

XV.

Principles of human nature.

sult only the seelings of nature and the interest of society'7.

There are two very natural propenfities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to oeconomy, to health, and to reputation, it is _ productive of the greatest part of the happiness of . private life. The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of 1 propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue; and if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire, may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man. To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most os the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and ' respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other. should be united and harmonised, would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature. _ The insensible and inactive disposition, which should be supposed alike destitute of both, would be rejected, by the common consent of mankind, as utterly incapable of procuring any happiness

37 See a very judicious treatise of Barbeyrac fur la Morale des Peru.

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mortified appearance was more suitable to the Christian who was certain of his sins and doubtful of his salvation. In their censures of luxury, the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial a9; and among the various articles which excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of any colour except: white, instruments of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows (as Jacob reposed his head on a stone), white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm- baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, according tothe expression of Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and an impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator 90. When Christianity was introduced among the rich and the polite, the observation of these singular laws was left, as it-would be at present, to the few who were ambitious of superior sanctity. But it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the inferior ranksof mankind to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and pleasure, which fortune hasplaced beyond their reach. The virtue ef the printitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, Was very frequently guarded by poverty and ignoranCe.

39 Consult a work of Clemens of Alexandria, intitled the Paedagogue, which contains the rudiments of ethics, as theyv were taught in the most celebrated of the Christian schools.

00 Tertulliau, de Spectaculis, c. 2 3. Clemens Alexandrin. Pa:dagug. l. iii. c. 8. v

The chaste severity of the fathers, in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes, flowed from the same principle; their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual, and degrade the spiritual, nature of man. It was their favourite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would' have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings 9'. The use of marriage was permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to continue the human spea cies, and as a restraint, however imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire. The hefitation of the orthodox casuists on this interesting subject, betrays the perplexity of men, unwilling to approve an institution, which they were compelled to tolerate 9'. The enumeration of the very whimfical laws, which they most circumstantially imposed on the marriage bed, would forCe a smile from the young, and a blush from the fair. It was their unanimous sentiment, that a first marriage was adequate to all the purposes, of nature and of society. The sensual connexion

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ijected the use of marriage. ' - Y a union

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