in the palate, and as notable as the science is which depends on it, one may justly presume that the ostentation of elegance, and a certain emulation and study how to excel in this sumptuous art of living, goes very far in the raising such a high idea of it as is observed among the men of pleasure. For were the circumstances of a table and company, equipages, services, and the rest of the management withdrawn, there would be hardly left any pleasure worth acceptance, even in the opinion of the most debauched themselves.

The very notion of a debauch (which is a sally into whatever can be imagined of pleasure and voluptuousness) carries with it a plain reference to society or fellowship. It may be called a surfeit or excess of eating and drinking, but hardly a debauch of that kind, when the excess is committed separately, out of all society or fellowship. And one who abuses himself in this way is often called a sot, but never a debauchee. The courtezans, and even the commonest of women, who live by prostitution, know very well how necessary it is that every one whom they entertain with their beauty should believe there are satisfactions reciprocal, and that pleasures are no less given than received. And were this imagination to be wholly taken away, there would be hardly any of the grosser sort of mankind who would not perceive their remaining pleasure to be of slender estimation.

Who is there can well or long enjoy anything, when alone, and abstracted perfectly, even in his very mind and thought, from everything belonging to society? Who would not, on such terms as these, be presently cloyed by any sensual indulgence? Who would not soon grow uneasy with his pleasure, however exquisite, till he had found means to impart it, and make it truly pleasant to him, by communicating and sharing it at least with some one single person? Let men imagine what they please, let them suppose themselves ever so selfish, or desire ever so much to follow the dictates of that narrow principle by which they would bring Nature under restraint,

Nature will break out; and in agonies, disquiets, and a distempered state, demonstrate evidently the ill consequence of such violence, the absurdity of such a device, and the punishment which belongs to such a monstrous and horrid endeavour.

Thus, therefore, not only the pleasures of the mind, but even those of the body, depend on natural affection; insomuch that where this is wanting, they not only lose their force, but are in a manner converted into uneasiness and disgust. The sensations which should naturally afford contentment and delight produce rather discontent and sourness, and breed a wearisomeness and restlessness in the disposition. This we may perceive by the perpetual inconstancy and love of change so remarkable in those who have nothing communicative or friendly in their pleasures. Good fellowship, in its abused sense, seems indeed to have something more constant and determining. The company supports the humour. Tis the same in love. A certain tenderness and generosity of affection supports the passion, which otherwise would instantly be changed. The perfectest beauty cannot, of itself, retain or fix it. And that love which has no other foundation, but relies on this exterior kind, is soon turned into aversion. Satiety, perpetual disgust, and feverishness of desire attend those who passionately study pleasure. They best enjoy it who study to regulate their passions. And by this they will come to know how absolute an incapacity there is in anything sensual to please or give contentment, where it depends not on something friendly or social, something conjoined, and in affinity with kind or natural affection.

But ere we conclude this article of social or natural affection we may take a general view of it, and bring it once for all into the scale, to prove what kind of balance it helps to make within,1 and what the consequence may be of its deficiency or light weight.

There is no one of ever so little understanding in what

belongs to a human constitution who knows not that without action, motion, and employment the body languishes and is oppressed; its nourishment turns to disease; the spirits, unemployed abroad, help to consume the parts within; and Nature, as it were, preys upon herself. In the same manner, the sensible and living part, the soul or mind, wanting its proper and natural exercise, is burdened and diseased. Its thoughts and passions being unnaturally withheld from their due objects, turn against itself, and create the highest impatience and illhumour.

In brutes and other creatures who have not the use of reason and reflection 1 (at least not after the manner of mankind) 'tis so ordered in Nature that by their daily search after food, and their application either towards the business of their livelihood or the affairs of their species or kind, almost their whole time is taken up, and they fail not to find full employment for their passion according to that degree of agitation to which they are fitted, and which their constitution requires. If any one of these creatures be taken out of his natural laborious state and placed amidst such a plenty as can profusely administer to all his appetites and wants, it may be observed that as his circumstances grow thus luxuriant, his temper and passions have the same growth. When he comes at any time to have the accommodations of life at a cheaper and easier rate than was at first intended him by Nature, he is made to pay dear for them in another way, by losing his natural good disposition and the orderliness of his kind or species.

This needs not to be demonstrated by particular instances. Whoever has the least knowledge of Natural History, or has been an observer of the several breeds of creatures, and their ways of life and propagation, will easily understand this difference of orderliness between the wild and the tame of the same species. The latter acquire new habits, and deviate from their original nature. They lose even the common instinct 1 Supra, p. 289; and Moralists, part vi. § 4; and Misc. iv. ch. ii.

and ordinary ingenuity of their kind, nor can they ever regain it whilst they continue in this pampered state; but being turned to shift abroad, they resume the natural affection and sagacity of their species. They learn to unite in stricter fellowship, and grow more concerned for their offspring. They provide against the seasons, and make the most of every advantage given by Nature for the support and maintenance of their particular species against such as are foreign and hostile. And thus as they grow busy and employed, they grow regular and good. Their petulancy and vice forsakes them with their idleness and ease.

It happens with mankind that whilst some are by necessity confined to labour, others are provided with abundance of all things by the pains and labour of inferiors. Now, if among the superior and easy sort there be not something of fit and proper employment raised in the room of what is wanting in common labour and toil; if instead of an application to any sort of work, such as has a good and honest end in society (as letters, sciences, arts, husbandry, public affairs, economy, or the like), there be a thorough neglect of all duty or employment; a settled idleness, supineness, and inactivity; this of necessity must occasion a most relaxed and dissolute state: it must produce a total disorder of the passions, and break out in the strangest irregularities imaginable.

We see the enormous growth of luxury in capital cities, I such as have been long the seat of empire. We see what improvements are made in vice of every kind where numbers of men are maintained in lazy opulence and wanton plenty. 'Tis otherwise with those who are taken up in honest and due employment, and have been well inured to it from their youth. This we may observe in the hardy remote provincials, the inhabitants of smaller towns, and the industrious sort of common people, where 'tis rare to meet with any instances of those irregularities which are known in courts and palaces, and in the rich foundations of easy and pampered priests.

Now if what we have advanced concerning an inward constitution be real and just; if it be true that Nature works by a just order and regulation as well in the passions and affections as in the limbs and organs which she forms; if it appears withal that she has so constituted this inward part that nothing is so essential to it as exercise, and no exercise so essential as that of social or natural affection; it follows that where this is removed or weakened, the inward part must necessarily suffer and be impaired. Let indolence, indifference, or insensibility be studied as an art, or cultivated with the utmost care, the passions thus restrained will force their prison, and in one way or other procure their liberty and find full employment. They will be sure to create to themselves unusual and unnatural exercise where they are cut off from such as is natural and good. And thus in the room of orderly and natural affection, new and unnatural must be raised, and all inward order and economy destroyed.

One must have a very imperfect idea of the order of Nature in the formation and structure of animals to imagine that so great a principle, so fundamental a part as that of natural affection, should possibly be lost or impaired, without any inward ruin or subversion of the temper and frame of mind.

Whoever is the least versed in this moral kind of architecture, will find the inward fabric so adjusted, and the whole so nicely built, that the barely extending of a single passion a little too far, or the continuance of it too long, is able to bring irrecoverable ruin and misery. He will find this experienced in the ordinary case of frenzy and distraction, when the mind, dwelling too long upon one subject (whether prosperous or calamitous) sinks under the weight of it, and proves what the necessity is of a due balance and counterpoise in the affections. He will find that in every different creature and distinct sex there is a different and distinct order, set, or suit of passions, proportionable to the different order of life, the different functions and capacities assigned to each. As the