their can

that even the best qualities of men, dour, as well as their refolution, may operate in the midst of their quarrels.

THERE is ftill more to be obferved on this fubject. Mankind not only find in their condition the fources of variance and diffenfion; they appear to have in their minds the feeds of animofity, and to embrace the occafions of mutual oppofition, with alacrity and pleasure. In the most pacific fituation, there are few who have not their enemies, as well as their friends; and who are not pleased with oppofing the proceedings of one, as much as with favouring the defigns of another. Small and fimple tribes, who in their domestic fociety have the firmeft union, are in their state of oppofition as feparate nations, frequently animated with the most implacable hatred. Among the citizens of Rome, in the early ages of that republic, the name of a foreigner, and that of an enemy, were the fame. Among the Greeks, the name of Barbarian, under which that people comprehended every nation that was of a race, and spoke a language, different from their own, became a term of indifcriminate contempt and averfion. Even where no particular claim to fuperiority is formed, the repugnance to union, the frequent wars, or rather the perpetual hoftilities which take place among rude nations and separate clans, difcover how much our fpecies is difpofed to oppofition, as well as to concert.

LATE discoveries have brought to our knowledge almost every fituation in which mankind

are placed. We have found them fpread over large and extenfive continents, where communications are open, and where national confederacy might be easily formed. We have found them in narrower diftricts, circumfcribed by mountains, great rivers, and arms of the fea. They have been found in fmall iflands, where the inhabitants might be easily affembled, and derive an advantage from their union. But in all those fituations, alike, they were broke into cantons, and affected a diftinction of name and community. The titles of fellowcitizen and countryman, unoppofed to thofe of alien and foreigner, to which they refer, would fall into difufe, and lofe their meaning. We love individuals on account of perfonal qualities; but we love our country, as it is a party in the divifions of mankind; and our zeal for its intereft, is a predilection in behalf of the fide we maintain.

In the promiscuous concourfe of men, it is fufficient that we have an opportunity of felecting our company. We. turn away from those who do not engage us, and we fix our refort where the fociety is more to our mind. We are fond of diftinctions; we place ourselves in oppofition, and quarrel under the denominations of faction and party, without any material fubject of controverfy. Averfion, like affection, is fostered by a continued direction to its particular object. Separation and estrangement, as well as oppofition, widen a breach which did not owe its beginnings to any offence. And it would feem, that till we have reduced mankind to the state of a family, or found fome external confi

deration

deration to maintain their connection in greater numbers, they will be for ever feparated into bands, and form a plurality of nations.

THE fenfe of a common danger, and the af faults of an enemy, have been frequently useful to nations, by uniting their members more firmly to gether, and by preventing the feceffions and actual feparations in which their civil difcord might otherwife terminate. And this motive to union which is offered from abroad, may be neceffary, not only in the cafe of large and extenfive nations, where coalitions are weakened by distance, and the diftinction of provincial names; but even in the narrow fociety of the fmalleft ftates. Rome itfelf was founded by a small party, which took its flight from Alba; her citizens were often in danger of feparating; and if the villages and cantons of the Volfci had been further removed from the scene of their diffenfions, the Mons Sacer might have received a new colony before the mother-country was ripe for fuch a discharge. She continued long to feel the quarrels of her nobles and her people; and kept open the gates of Janus, to remind thofe parties of the duties they owed to their country.

SOCIETIES, as well as individuals, being charged with the care of their own preservation, and having feparate interests, which give rife to jealoufies and competitions, we cannot be furprized to find hoftilities arife from this fource.

But

were there no angry paffions of a different fort, the animofities which attend an oppofition of interest, should bear a proportion to the fuppofed

D

8

"

value of the fubject. "The Hottentot nations, fays Kolben, "trefpafs on each other by thefts "of cattle and of women; but fuch injuries are "feldom committed, except with a view to exafperate their neighbours, and bring them to a

war. Such depredations, then, are not the foundation of war, but the effects of a hoftile intention already conceived. The nations of North America, who have no herds to preferve, nor fettlements to defend, are yet engaged in almost perpetual wars, for which they can affign no reafon, but the point of honour, and a defire to continue the struggle their fathers maintained. They do not regard the fpoils of an enemy; and the warrior who has feized any booty, eafily parts with it to the first person who comes in his way. *

BUT we need not cross the Atlantic to find proofs of animofity, and to obferve, in the collifion of feparate focieties, the influence of angry paffions, that do not arife from an oppofition of intereft. Human nature has no part of its character of which more flagrant examples are given on this fide of the globe. What is it that ftirs in the breasts of ordinary men when the enemies of their country are named? Whence are the prejudices that fubfift between different provinces, cantons, and villages, of the fame empire and territory? What is it that excites one half of the nations of Europe against the other? The

* See Charlevoix's Hiftory of Canada,

ftatesman may explain his conduct on motives of national jealoufy and caution, but the people have dislikes and antipathies, for which they cannot account. Their mutual reproaches of perfidy and injuftice, like the Hottentot depredations, are but symptoms of an animofity, and the language of a hoftile difpofition, already conceived. The charge of cowardice and pufillanimity, qualities which the interested and cautious enemy fhould, of all others, like best to find in his rival, is urged with averfion, and made the ground of diflike. Hear the peasants on different fides of the Alps, and the Pyrenees, the Rhine, or the British channel, give vent to their prejudices and national paffions; it is among them that we find the materials of war and diffenfion laid without the direction of government, and fparks ready to kindle into a flame, which the statesman is frequently difpofed to extinguish. The fire will not always catch where his reafons of state would direct, nor ftop where the concurrence of intereft has produced an alliance. “ My father, faid a Spanish peafant, "would rife from his

grave, if he could forefee a war with France. " What intereft had he, or the bones of his father, in the quarrels of princes?

THESE obfervations feem to arraign our fpecies, and to give an unfavourable picture of mankind; and yet the particulars we have mentioned are con fiftent with the most amiable qualities of our naand often furnish a scene for the exercise of our greatest abilities. They are fentiments of gene.

ture,