We are informed by another medical writer, (Sauvages) that he has known this disorder in the son of a common beggar, who could scarcely be said to have any home but the streets and public roads.*

"Thus every good his native wilds impart
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart.
And even the ills that round his mansion rise
Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies.
Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,
And dear that hill that lifts him to the storms.
And as a child, when scaring sounds molest,
Clings close and closer to its mother's breast,
So the loud tempest and the whirlwind's roar
But bind him to his native mountains more."

The sources of patriotism hitherto mentioned arise chiefly from the imagination and from the association of ideas, and have little or no connexion with our rational and moral powers. They presuppose, indeed, sensibility, social attachment, and force of mind, but they do not necessarily imply reflection or a sense of duty. They are the natural result of our constitution when placed in certain circumstances; and hence, though not coeval with our birth, nor after their appearance unsusceptible of analysis, the affection they produce, in so far as it arises from them without the cooperation of any other motive, may be considered as a blind impulse, analogous in its operation to those desires and appetites which have been already mentioned. This affection may be called, for the sake of distinction, Instinctive Patriotism.

The circumstances which have been enumerated as the sources of instinctive patriotism operate with peculiar force in small communities, where the extent of the territory and the body of the people falling under the habitual observation of every citizen, present more definite objects to the imagination, and affect the heart more deeply that what is only conceived from description. Here, too, the individual feels his importance as an active member of the state, and the consciousness of what he is able to do for its prosperity contributes powerfully to promote his patriotic exertions.

* Nosologia Methodica.

In an extensive and populous country the instinctive affection of patriotism is apt to grow languid among the mass of the people, and therefore it becomes the more necessary to impress on their minds those considerations of reason and duty which recommend public spirit as one of the principal branches of morality. What these considerations are I shall afterwards endeavour to point out in treating of the duties we owe to our fellow creatures. At present I shall only remark, that, as instinctive patriotism decays, so rational patriotism acquires force in proportion to the extent of territory and to the multitude of fellow citizens it embraces; in other words, in proportion to the magnitude of that sum of happiness which it aspires to secure and to augment.

Such considerations, however, can have weight only with men whose sense of duty is strong; and as, unfortunately, this is not the case with a great proportion of mankind, it is of the utmost consequence, in every state of society, to cherish as much as possible the instinctive affection of patriotism, and to counteract those causes that tend to extinguish it. For this purpose nothing is more likely to be effectual than to diffuse a general taste for historical and geographical reading. A peasant who has never extended his thoughts beyond his own province, and who sees every thing flourishing and happy around him, is apt to consider the enjoyments he possesses as inseparable from the human race, and no more connected with any particular system of laws than the advantages he derives from the immediate bounty of nature. It is the study of history and geography alone than can remove this prejudice, by showing us, on the one hand, the narrow limits within which the political happiness of our species has hitherto been confined; and, on the other, the singular combination of accidental circumstances to which we are indebted for the blessings we enjoy. This effect of history indeed tends rather to cherish rational than instinctive patriotism; but it operates also wonderfully on the latter affection, by leading us to contrast our own country and countrymen with other lands and other nations, and thereby presenting a more definite and interesting ob

ject to the imagination and to the heart. When, from the transactions of past ages and of foreign lands, we return to what is near and familiar, we are affected somewhat in the same manner as if we met with a fellow citizen in a distant country. Absence from home never fails to endear it to a mind possessed of any sensibility. The extent of our country, too, seems to diminish to our intellectual eye in proportion as the object recedes from us, and we feel a sensible relation to what we before regarded with complete indifference. The natives of the same county in Scotland feel towards each other a partial predilection when they meet in the metropolis of Great Britain; and the circumstance of being born in this island forms a tie of friendship between individuals in the other quarters of the globe. The study of history operates somewhat in the same manner, though not perhaps in the same degree. By transporting us in imagination over the surface of this planet, and by assembling before our view the myriads who have occupied it before us, it serves to define to our thoughts more distinctly the particular community to which we belong, and strengthens the bond of relationship that unites us to all its members.

I shall only add further on this subject, that, when the extent and population of a country are so very great as to give it a decided preeminence among neighbouring nations, it has a tendency to produce (partly by interesting the vanity, and partly by dazzling the imagination) an attachment to national glory, which operates both on the vulgar and on men of better education, in a way extremely analogous to the instinctive patriotism felt by the member of a small community. A remarkable instance of this occurred in the national character of the French prior to the late Revolution, nor does it seem to have altered in this respect since that event, if we may judge from the indignation with which the idea of a confederate republic has always been received. A

be traced in various exthe preface to his Ro

juvabit tamen rerum rarum populi, pro virili

parte, et ipsum consuluisse; et si in tantâ scriptorum turbâ mea fama in obscuro sit, nobilitate ac magnitudine eorum qui nomini officient meo me consoler. Res est præterea et immensi operis, ut quæ supra septingentesimum annum repetatur, et quæ ab exiguis profecta initiis eo creverit, ut jam magnitudine laboret suâ et legentium plerisque haud dubito, quin primæ origines proximaque originibus, minus præbitura voluptatis sint, festinantibus ad hæc nova, quibus jampridem prævalentis populi vires se ipsa conficiunt." The very danger which such an empire was exposed to from its enormous magnitude, and from the seeds of destruction. which it carried in its bosom, seems to heighten the patriotic affection of the historian, by awakening an anxious solicitude for its impending fate. The contrast between this feeling of national pride, and a melancholy anticipation of those calamities to which national greatness leads, gives the principal charm to this exquisite composition.

SECTION V.

Of Pity to the Distressed.

As the unfortunate chiefly stand in need of our assistance, so there is provided in every breast a most powerful advocate in their favor; an advocate, to whose solicitations it is impossible even for the most obdurate to turn always a deaf ear. The appropriation of the word humanity to this part of our constitution affords sufficient evidence of the common sentiments of mankind upon the subject.

"Mollissima corda
se natura fatetur,

Humano generi dare
Quæ lacrymas dedit.

A grege mutorum.” *

Hæc nostri pars optima sensûs.
Separat hoc nos

The general principle of benevolence, or of good will to our fellow creatures, (of which I shall treat after

Juv. Sat. 15.

wards, when I come to consider our Moral duties) as it disposes us to promote the happiness of others, so it restrains us from doing them evil, and prompts us to relieve their distresses. The office of compassion or pity is more limited. It impels us to relieve distress; it serves as a check on resentment and selfishness, and the other principles which lead us to injure the interests. of others; but it does not prompt us to the communication of positive happiness. Its object is to relieve, and sometimes to prevent, suffering; but not to augment the enjoyment of those who are already easy and comfortable. We are disposed to do this by the general spirit of benevolence, but not by the particular affection of pity.

The final cause of this constitution of our nature is very ingeniously and happily pointed out by Dr. Butler in his second sermon on Compassion. This profound philosopher observes, that "supposing men to be capable of happiness and of misery in degrees equally intense, yet they are liable to the latter during longer periods of time than they are susceptible of the former. We frequently see men suffering the agonies of pain for days, weeks, and months together, without any intermission, except the short suspensions of sleep,-a stretch of misery to which no state of high enjoyment can approach in point of duration. Such, too, is our constitution, and that of the world around us, that the sources of our sufferings are placed much more within the power of other men than the sources of our pleasures, so that there is no individual, (however incapable he may be to add to the happiness of his fellow creatures) who has it not in his power to do them great and extensive mischief. To prevent the abuse of this power when we are under the influence of any of the angry passions, by means of a particular affection tending to check the excess of resentment, was therefore of more consequence to the comfort of human life than it would have been to superadd to the general principle of good will a particular affection prompting to the communication of positive enjoyment. The power we have over the misery of our fellow creatures being a more