[Here a considerable part is wanting.]

* * "In short, man is an animal equally selfish and vain. Vanity,
indeed, is but a modification of selfishness. From the latter,
there are some who pretend to be free: they are generally such as
declaim against the lust of wealth and power, because they have
never been able to attain any high degree in either: they boast of
generosity and feeling. They tell us (perhaps they tell us in
rhyme) that the sensations of an honest heart, of a mind universally
benevolent, make up the quiet bliss which they enjoy; but they will
not, by this, be exempted from the charge of selfishness. Whence
the luxurious happiness they describe in their little family-
circles? Whence the pleasure which they feel, when they trim their
evening fires, and listen to the howl of winter's wind? Whence, but
from the secret reflection of what houseless wretches feel from it?
Or do you administer comfort in affliction--the motive is at hand; I
have had it preached to me in nineteen out of twenty of your
consolatory discourses--the comparative littleness of our own
misfortunes.

"With vanity your best virtues are grossly tainted: your
benevolence, which ye deduce immediately from the natural impulse of
the heart, squints to it for its reward. There are some, indeed,
who tell us of the satisfaction which flows from a secret
consciousness of good actions: this secret satisfaction is truly
excellent--when we have some friend to whom we may discover its
excellence."

He now paused a moment to re-light his pipe, when a clock, that
stood at his back, struck eleven; he started up at the sound, took