ake in Syria, causes sorrow. The inhabitants meet to petition
against the wrongs inflicted on people whom they have never seen, and
give of the fruits of their labour to sufferers who have never heard of
them, and from whom they can receive no return of acknowledgment. It is
found that the more pursuits and aims are multiplied, the more does the
appreciation of human happiness expand, till it becomes the interest
which predominates over all the rest. This is an interest which works
out its own gratification, more surely than any other. Wherever,
therefore, the greatest variety of pursuits is met with, it is fair to
conclude that the fraternal spirit of society is the most vigorous, and
the society itself the most progressive.
This is as far as any nation has as yet attained,--to a warmer than
common sympathy among its own members, and compassion for distant
sufferers. When the time comes for nations to care for one another, and
co-operate as individuals, such a people will be the first to hold out
the right hand.
* * * * *
Manners have not been treated of separately from Morals in any of the
preceding divisions of the objects of the traveller's observation. The
reason is, that manners are inseparable from morals, or, at least, cease
to have meaning when separated. Except as manifestations of morals, they
have no interest, and can have no permanent existence. A traveller who
should report of them exclusively is not only no philosopher, but does
not merit the name of an observer; for he can have no insight into the
matter which he professes to convey an account of. His interpretation of
what is before his eyes is more likely to be wrong than correct, like
that of the primitive star-gazers, who reported that the planets went
backwards and forwards in the sky. To him, and to him only, who has
studied the principles of morals, and thus possessed himself of a key to
the mysteries of all social weal and woe, will manners be an index
answering as faithfully to the internal movements, harmonious or
discordant, of society, as the human countenance to the workings of the
human heart.
CHAPTER VI.
DISCOURSE.
"He that questioneth much shall learn much, and content much;
but especially if he apply his questions to the skill of the
persons whom he asketh; for he shall give them occasion to
please themselves in speaking, and himself shall continually
gather knowledge
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