every where present themselves, political struggles, even the pursuit of science, are all opposed to the predominance of religious feeling. Indeed, to judge from the complaints of divines in all times, it would seem that we have to apprehend a deficiency rather than an excess of piety. The world we live in presses so close upon us, we are too apt to forget that the temporal is as nothing compared with the eternal; for any limited time bears no proportion to infinity. Assuredly there have been examples of excessive religious zeal, as of political fanaticism, and of every other passion run wild, and probably there will always be such; but those excesses, like the extravagances of love or of liberty, only prove how interesting the subject is, how important an element of happiness; and if we have been led to conclude that even the most dangerous of our desires, such as ambition and thirst for glory, produce much more good than ill, we shall not hesitate to determine that the general good effect of religion is but slightly affected by such exceptions, which, like all extreme cases, strike us much more than they deserve. The murder of Henry IV. of France has done incalculable ill to the cause, though it be but a single fact; so much are the minds of men impressed by a solitary instance, if it happen among the great, and be universally known. On the other hand, the advantages of religion are appreciated by those who feel them or discover them by the eye of reason, but they cannot be so palpably displayed as the acts of cruelty to which it has occasionally led. And although, at times, a religious madness may have seized even a whole

community, yet the fit has soon passed by, and another age has seen the same excesses renewed in the name of civil liberty. The history of nations, like the life of an individual, is a history of the passions, and the decay of one would seem only the preparation for another. Thus the religious frenzy which in the middle ages gave birth to the Crusades, and strewed the East with bones, has, in modern times, been succeeded by a political fury which shook every throne in Christendom, and deluged Europe with blood. If we be to judge of the passions by their occasional excesses, we ought to condemn them all, but if by their general effects, we must pronounce them all to be necessary; and if we do not abjure liberty because it has engendered horrors, neither shall we traduce religion because it may have done the same. Their respective partizans endeavour to palliate the evils to which each may have led, and so far they may be allowed a quiet hearing; but when the one attacks the other, the latter has a right to retort; and if he can show that the same crimes are committed under the banner of the former, he, at least, ought to silence that adversary. Such is the blindness of party, that it excuses or lauds the same enormities in its own case, which it most condemns in another; and while attacking some form of intolerance, leaves the spirit alive. "That spirit still stalks abroad, while we are gibbeting the carcase, or demolishing the tomb."16 Every producer is against restrictions on trade, except in his own case. If the

16 Burke.

friends of liberty exclaim against the religious murderers of the sixteenth century, the votaries of religion may point to the political assassins of the last and present age. Omitting these mutual recriminations, the parties ought to unite to keep down the real cause of the mischief, ungovernable passion in whatever form it may appear. And as Religion and Liberty are the choicest spirits which the Deity has given to man, so their revels are the most dangerous. Let us then fondly cherish and preserve them, even from their own excesses; for, if he lose the one, man is a degraded being; if he reject the other, he lives without Consolation, and dies without Hope.

quently had occasion to point out, in a cursory manner, particular applications of certain general principles which have a mighty influence upon human happiness. We must now examine these principles separately, and bring them more into notice. This will form the subject of the present division of our inquiry.

The first which I shall mention, is the grand Principle of Occupation. Let us see what this principle really is.

The slightest acquaintance with our mental constitution is sufficient to inform us that the mind of man, in his waking hours, cannot be altogether vacant, but must be taken up with something, whether sensation, thought, or emotion. It is equally evident that the capacity of the mind is limited, so that far from embracing many things at once, it cannot exist in more than one state at the same instant of time.

The immediate consequence of these first principles

is, that the more the mind is occupied with one thing, the less can it be occupied with another; and conversely, the less it is occupied with one thing, the more must it be occupied with another.

Again, there is another principle to be taken along with the foregoing, though it seems independent of them; that the longer the mind remains fixed in any one state, the greater difficulty does it find in changing to a different state. In other words, the more

we indulge in any feeling or train of reflection, the greater hold does it take upon the mind. These together are what we call the principles of occupation, of immense importance to the metaphysician and moralist, for by them a very great variety of phenomena admit of a ready explanation, and on them the happiness of men depends in an eminent degree.

Several particular applications of the above principles have been already made; but now we must take a general and connected view of their consequences.

Since we have seen that the mental phenomena consist either in sensations, thoughts, or emotions, it follows from the above principles that the more we live in any one of these states, the less can we live in another, that an excessive addiction to the senses tends to prevent the due development of reason, imagination, and affection, that reason itself may exclude depth of feeling, and sensibility impede the growth of the powers of reflection. No doubt, the difference between men is very considerable, in rapidity of conception, judgment, and feeling, as well as in the facility of passing from one state to another. Thus the mind of one man may embrace in suc