o the consideration of the nature and influence of the love of fame in
modifying the actions of the human mind. We have already stated it to be
one of the characteristic distinctions of our species to erect monuments
which outlast the existence of the persons that produced them. This at
first was accidental, and did not enter the design of the operator. The
man who built himself a shed to protect him from the inclemency of
the seasons, and afterwards exchanged that shed for a somewhat more
commodious dwelling, did not at first advert to the circumstance that
the accommodation might last, when he was no longer capable to partake
of it.

In this way perhaps the wish to extend the memory of ourselves beyond
the term of our mortal existence, and the idea of its being practicable
to gratify that wish, descended upon us together. In contemplating
the brief duration and the uncertainty of human life, the idea must
necessarily have occurred, that we might survive those we loved, or that
they might survive us. In the first case we inevitably wish more or less
to cherish the memory of the being who once was an object of affection
to us, but of whose society death has deprived us. In the second case
it can scarcely happen but that we desire ourselves to be kindly
recollected by those we leave behind us. So simple is the first germ
of that longing after posthumous honour, which presents us with so
memorable effects in the page of history.

But, previously to the further consideration of posthumous fame, let us
turn our attention for a moment to the fame, or, as in that sense it
is more usually styled, popularity, which is the lot of a few favoured
individuals while they live. The attending to the subject in this point
of view, will be found to throw light upon the more extensive prospect
of the question to which we will immediately afterwards proceed.

Popularity is an acquisition more level to the most ordinary capacities,
and therefore is a subject of more general ambition, than posthumous
fame. It addresses itself to the senses. Applause is a species of good
fortune to which perhaps no mortal ear is indifferent. The persons who
constitute the circle in which we are applauded, receive us with smiles
of approbation and sympathy. They pay their court to us, seem to be made
happy by our bare presence among them, and welcome us to their houses
with congratulation and joy. The vulgar portion of mankind scarcely
understand the questi