right cheek, turn to him the other
also; and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat,
let him have thy cloak also: and whosoever shall compel thee to go a
mile, go with him twain: love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you and persecute you." This certainly is not commonplace morality. It
is very original. It shows at least (and it is for this purpose we
produce it) that no two things can be more different than the Heroic and
the Christian characters.

Now the author to whom I refer has not only marked this difference more
strongly than any preceding writer, but has proved, in contradiction to
first impressions, to popular opinion, to the encomiums of orators and
poets, and even to the suffrages of historians and moralists, that the
latter character possesses the most of true worth, both as being most
difficult either to be acquired or sustained, and as contributing most
to the happiness and tranquillity of social life. The state of his
argument is as follows:

I. If this disposition were universal, the case is clear; the world
would be a society of friends. Whereas, if the other disposition were
universal, it would produce a scene of universal contention. The world
could not hold a generation of such men.

II. If, what is the fact, the disposition be partial; if a few be
actuated by it, amongst a multitude who are not; in whatever degree it
does prevail, in the same proportion it prevents, allays, and terminates
quarrels, the great disturbers of human happiness, and the great sources
of human misery, so far as man's happiness and misery depend upon man.
Without this disposition enmities must not only be frequent, but, once
begun, must be eternal: for, each retaliation being a fresh injury, and
consequently requiring a fresh satisfaction, no period can be assigned
to the reciprocation of affronts, and to the progress of hatred, but
that which closes the lives, or at least the intercourse, of the parties.

I would only add to these observations, that although the former of the
two characters above described may be occasionally useful; although,
perhaps, a great general, or a great statesman, may be formed by it, and
these may be instruments of important benefits to mankind, yet is this
nothing more than what is true of many qualities which are acknowledged
to be vicious. Envy is a quality of this sort: I know not a stro