CHAPTER III. 423 but we see not the vexing disquietudes of his soul ; and when we spy a person in ragged garments, we form a despicable opinion of him too suddenly ; we can hardly think him either happy or wise, our judgment is so strangely biassed by outward and sensi- ble things. It was through the power of this prejudice that the Jews rejected our blessed Saviour; they could not suffer them- selves to believe that the man who aWpeared as the Son of a car- penter was also the Son of God. And because St. Paul was of little stature, a mean presence, and his voice contemptible, some of the Corinthians were tempted to doubt whether he was inspi^ red or no. This prejudice is cured by a longer acquaintance with the world, and a just observation that things are sometimes better and sometimes worse than they appear to be. We ought there- fore to restrain our excessive forwardness to form our opinion of persons or things before we have opportunity to search into them more perfectly. Remember that the grey beard does not make a philosopher; all is not gold that glisters ; and a rough diamond may be worth an immense sum. IH. A mixture of diferent qualities in the same thing, is another temptation to judge amiss. We are ready tube carried away by that quality which strikes the first or the strongest im- pressions upon us, and we judge of the whole object according to that quality, regardless of all the rest ; or sometimes we colour over all the other qualities with that one tincture, whether it be bad or good. When we have just reason to admire a man for his virtues, we are sometimes inclined not only to neglect his weaknesses, but even to put a good colour upon them, and to think them amiable. When we read a book that has many excellent truths in it, and divine sentiments, we are tempted to approve not only that whole book, but even all the writings of that author. When a poet, or an orator, or a painter, has performed admirably in several illustrious pieces, we sometimes also admire his very errors, we mistake his blunders for beauties, and are so ignorantly fond as to copy after them. It is this prejudice that has rendered so many great scholars perfect bigots, and inclined them to defend Homer or Horace, Livy or Cicero, in their mistakes, and vindicate all the follies of their favourite author. It is this that tempts some great writers to support the sayings of almost all the ancients of the fa- thers of the church, and admire them even in their very reveries. On the other hand, if an author has professed heretical sen- timents in religion, we throw our scorn upon every thing he writes, we despise even his critical or mathematical learning, and will hardly allow him common sense. If a poem has some blemish in li
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