Sgt) LOGIC: OR, THE RIGHT USE OF REASON. object they converse with, and ,puttheir oWn colours upon it, and': thus lead the judgment astray from truth. It is love that makes. the mother think her own child the fairest, and will sometimes persuade us that a blemish is beauty. hope. and desire make an hour of delay seem as long as two or three hours ; hope inclines us to think there is nothing too difficult to be attempted ; despair tells us that a brave attempt is mere rashness, and that every diffi- culty is -insurmountable. Fear Makes us imagine that a bush shaken with the wind, has some savage beast in it, and multiplies the dangers that attend our patti ; but still there is a more unhap- py effect of fear when it keeps millions of souls in slavery to the errors of an established religion : what could persuade the wise men and philosophers of a Popish country to believ6 thegross absurdities of the Roinisli church, but the fear of torture or death, the galleys or the üiyuisitibñ ? Sorrow and melancholy teMpt` us tö think our ciicudi§tanëés múch tnore dismal than they are; that we mayhavë sÒHié excuse for mourning : and envy repre sents the condition of diir neighbour better than it is, that there may be some pretence fór'her An vexation and uneasiness. An- ge'r, and wroth; and i'evénge, and all those hateful passions, ex- cite itt us far worse'ideäs of Men than they deserve, and persuade us to believe all that is ill of them. A detail of the evil influence of the affections of the mind' upon our judgment, would make a large volume. The cure of these prejudices is attained by a constant jea- lously. of ourselves, and watchfulness over our passions, that they may never interpose when we are called to pass a judgment of any thing : and when our affections are warmly engaged, let us abstain from judging. It would be also of great use to us to form our deliberate judgments of persons and things in the calmest and tàerenesthours of life, when the passions of nature are all silent,. and the mind eìijoys' its most perfect composure : and these judg -' Meets so formed should be treasured up in the mind, that we night have réCourse to them in the hours of need. See many' more sentiments and directions relating to this subject, in my Doctrine of thé Passions. V. Thefondness we have for SELF, and the relation which, other persons and things have to ourselves, furnish us with ano- ther long list of prejudices. This indeed might be reduced to the passion of self -love, but it is so copious an head that I choose to naine it as a distinct spring öf false judgments. We are gene- rally ready to fancy every thing of our own has something peen:- liarly valuable in it, when indeed there is no other reason, but because it is our own. Were we born among the gardens of Italy, the rocks óf` Sivitzer'lánd, or the ice and snows of Russia and Sweden; still we should inìagitie peculiar excellencies in our ná five land. We conceive' a good idea of the toìvn and village
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