tributes to the promotion of their own honour and happiness.

The Satisfaction produced by complacency, indicates that we have, in some respect or other, a personal interest in the object of it; which distinguishes the affection from that high gratification we may enjoy, when we contemplate and applaud the sentiments, dispositions, and actions of great and respectable characters, with which we can have no immediate concern.

The Approbation which accompanies complacency, distinguishes its object from the more common causes of satisfaction. These causes may arise from whatever quadrates with our wishes and desires, without paying attention to their intrinsic merit. A suitableness to the occasion is the only requisite to inspire satisfaction; but the Approbation implied in com; placency, conveys the idea of some kind of Excellency. The term has never been profaned by the application of it to guilty pursuits, dis honourable success, or unworthy sentiments; however they may flatter our vanity, or be the completion of our wishes. Nor are things of a trivial or transient nature, deemed worthy of this affection. It is not said of a mere spectator, that he takes Complacency in a ball, a concert, or at a theatrical exhibition; however

highly he may be delighted and satisfied with the performance.

Nor can the term be applied with propriety to any beneficial acquisition, which has been purely accidental. The highest prize which the wheel of fortune may have thrown into our laps, may be received with joy, delight, and satisfaction; but the terms Approbation and Complacency would be improperly employed to express our feelings.

Complacency may be inspired by some parts of the inanimate creation, in which we have an immediate concern, and which communicate pleasure on the review. Works of art well executed, may be contemplated with Complacency; certainly by the Artist, if he has succeeded to his wishes; and the Possessor will enjoy something of a similar pleasure, if the performance be calculated to recall pleasing ideas, or if he should have manifested either taste or address in the purchase of it. (See Note H.)

The above instances will evince that, in strict propriety of language, Complacency is alone applicable to that species of Good, which originates from some mental or moral excellence; where there is an indication of propriety, ingenuity, wisdom, address, or dignity in senti

ment, design, execution; or of rectitude and benevolence in the motive.

It is obvious that the affection of Complacency, will possess different degrees of strength, according to the various kinds and degrees of excellence discernible in the exciting cause. The highest degree of Complacency can alone be inspired, by the obvious use of wise and pertinent measures, from beneficent motives, which are, or promised to be, productive of the most desirable ends: or by laudable dispositions, and powerful exertions, crowned with the success we most ardently desired. When the means have been as wise as the nature of the thing would admit, the motives the most noble and generous; when the execution indicates skill, and the result proves as successful as could have been wished, Complacency, respecting that object, is complete.

High Complacency is the most grateful of all the Affections. It possesses an elevation and a suavity peculiar to itself. It is permanent satisfaction, enjoying the full approbation of reason; and consequently it suffers no alloy from the struggle of contending passions, or opposite desires. When it is inspired by our own conduct, it is accompanied by self-approbation, or the testi

mony of an applauding conscience, enlivened perhaps by the voice of gratitude, and enriched by the esteem of the worthy. If it proceed from the conduct of others, it augments the pleasures of affection, friendship, and gratitude.

According to the above view of the affection, may a virtuous and comprehensive mind, contemplate things in themselves of a displeasing nature, with Complacency; such as difficulties, which are introductory to benefits; and sufferings, which may be requisite for the production of the most essential good

But the affection of Complacency has its counterfeit. Being more complicate than either of the preceding, and the approbation of the mind forming a constituent part of it, an erroneous opinion of ourselves may change the nature of this sublime affection, and render it the parent of vice and folly. Thus false conceptions of our own talents, acquirement, conduct, may inspire Pride, Vanity, Haughtiness, and Arrogance.

Notwithstanding these affections are evil in their nature and tendency, yet as they are the illegitimate offspring of Complacency, violated by Self-love, and have the appearance of great good for their object, they demand a place in this arrangement.

Pride is that exalted idea of our state, qualifications, or attainments, which exceeds the boundaries of justice, and induces us to look down upon supposed inferiors, with some degree of unmerited contempt.

When this elevated idea of ourselves becomes a motive to avoid and despise any thing mean and unworthy, its impropriety is overlooked ; and as it leads to worthy conduct, it is honoured with the appellation of laudable Pride.

It sometimes consists in exaggerated ideas of the superiority of our own country; of merit in our relatives or intimate connections, whose character and conduct reflect some rays of honour upon ourselves;-such as the pride of family descent, that of children whose parents may have acquired celebrity,-or of parents in the accomplishments of their children, or particular honours conferred upon them. This proceeding from the excess of affection, where affection is natural, is called a pardonable Pride.

When Pride is manifested by an ostentatious display of wealth, station, or accomplishments, it is deemed a vain Pride.

When it is indulged to such an excess, that it looks down with disdain upon others, but little inferior, perhaps equal, possibly much superior in real merit, it is branded with the title of insufferable Pride. (See Note I.)