the decision of those who are most conversant in the affairs of business,

that he might let it be tried by a sort of general experience, without resorting to the method of induction. Men of extensive mercantile connections and careful observation, have a kind of undefinable impression, with regard to this subject, on which he places much reliance for the support of his doctrine. He appeals with confidence to those who have hazarded most largely, and most frequently, on the faith of agents and customers and distant correspondents:

"There is no question," he observes, "as to the fact of a very extended practical honesty, between man and man, in their intercourse with each other. The fact. Why is it, that he whom you have only question is, as to the reason of the trusted acquits himself of his trust with such correctness and fidelity? Whether is his mind, in so doing, most set upon yourinterest or upon his own? Whether is it because he seeks your advantage in it, or because he finds in it his own advan tage? Tell us to which of the two concerns he is most tremblingly alive-to your property, or to his own character? and whether, upon the last of these feelings, he may not be more forcibly impelled to equitable dealing than upon the first of them? We well know, that there is room enough in his bosom for both; but to determine how powerfully selfishness is blended with the punctualities and the integrities of business, let us ask those who can speak most soundly and experi mentally on the subject, what would be the result, if the element of selfishness were so detached from the operations of trade, that there was no such thing as a man suffering in his prosperity because he suffered in his good name; that there was no such thing as a desertion of custom and employment coming upon the back of a blasted credit, and ly security we had of man was his prin. ciples, and that his interest flourished and augmented just as surely without his principles as with them? Tell us, if the bold we have of a man's own personal advan

a

into a fair and seeming compact of principle, like dogs of rapine, let loose upon their prey, overleap the barrier which for merly restrained them? Does not this prove, that selfishness, after all, is the grand principle on which the brotherhood of the human race is made to hang togeth

er; and that he who can make the wrath of man to praise him, bas also, upon the selfishness of man, caused a most beauteous order of wide and useful intercourse to be suspended?"—pp. 58, 59.

It cannot be questioned, we think, that God has combined the separate interests of men, into a harmonious system of operation for the good of the whole. But if in estimating the character of each individual, it should appear that the mainspring of all his actions is selfishness, and that to this, even his virtues are subordinate, how little credit can be given to the collective body of such a community, on the score of disinterested benevolence?

"The moralities of nature are but the moralities of a day, and will cease to be applanded when this world, the only theatre of their applause is burnt up. They

are but the blossoms of that rank efflores

cence which is nourished on the soil of human corruption, and can never bring forth fruit unto immortality. The discerner of all secrets sees that they emin

ate from a principle which is at utter war with the charity that prepares for the enjoyments, and that glows in the bosoms of the celestial; and, therefore, though highly esteemed among men, they may be, in his sight an abomination."—pp. 60.

From this general view Dr. C. next descends to particulars; and draws his first illustration, from what is often observable in the dissolution of partnerships. When for their mutual advantage in trade, or other business, men enter into such arrangements, and as long as prosperity crowns every enterprise, there may be all the appearance of genuine friendship between the partners and their families, cemented by the daily interchanges of exuberant hospitality. But every such connection of interest and business must be dissolved; and how often, as the time approaches, does the inherent selfishness of human nature, disclose itself to every eye. Where now are those gratuitous expressions of confidence, which

were wont to be lavished, and repaid with interest, by every individual of the firm? How often have we known this sunshine and apparent all warmth, succeeded by cold and dark suspicions, and resulting in the fiercest recriminations! How often has the partnership, in which all concerned, just now appeared so fair and liberal and magnanimous, ended in "a scramble of downright selfishness ?"

And something like this happens so frequently in the fluctuations of trade, as to prove the existence of a deep-rooted and general depravity: and that it does not always happen, may be accounted for in a way not much more creditable to our fallen nature. It may result from a mere worldly wisdom, which perceives that selfishness cannot be indulged in all its strength, without such an exposure of character, as would not only ruin a man in the estimation of his patrons in trade, but in the estimation of the whole community. To ascertain precisely, in what degree the honesty which strikes us so agreeably in a man of business, is resolvable into mere selfishness, it would be necessary to suppose him placed in such circumstances, as to have nothing to hope, or fear from his fellow men. The situation which approaches nearest to this, is that of a man on the eve of bankruptcy; and with no rational prospect of ever retrieving his affairs. In the hour of desperation, he may feel that he has nothing to loose; and how will he then conduct himself?

"In these circumstances, if you have ever seen the man abandon himself to utter

regardlessness of all the honesties which at one time adorned bim, and doing such disgraceful things as he would have spurned at the very suggestion of, in the days of his prosperity; and, forgetful of his former name, practising all possible shifts of duplicity to prolong the credit of a tot tering establishment; and to keep himrestlessness, weaving such a web of entanglement around his many friends and companions, as shall most surely implicate approaches, plying his petty wiles how to some of them in his fall; and, as the crisis survive the coming ruin, and to gather up

self afloat for a few months of torture and

of its fragments to his family. O! how much is there here to deplore; and who can be so ungenerous as to stalk in unrelenting triumph over the helplessness of so

sad an overthrow! But if ever such an exhibition meet your eye, while we ask you not to withhold your pity from the unfortunate, we ask you also to read in it a lesson of worthless and sunken humanity; how even its very virtues are tinctured with corruption; and that the honour and the truth, and the equity, with which man proudly thinks his nature to be embellished, are often reared on the basis of selfishness, and lie prostrate in the dust when that basis is cut away.”—pp. 65.

Evasions of the revenue laws of a state, furnish Dr. C. with another example, which he thinks proves still more satisfactorily the influence of selfishness, on the moral judgment of mankind. There is a strong general reciprocity of advantage, between a government of a country and all its inhabitants. The former protects, and the latter support their protector. Neither can do without the other. But this reciprocity of interest does not necessarily exert a binding influence upon every member of the community. Many an individual calculates that though he should by some dexterous evasion exonerate himself from the burden of taxes, he will still be as well protected as if he paid the full amount. The tie of mutual advantage is thus dissolved. Now such, according to Dr. C. is the actual adjustment of the moral sense and moral conduct of mankind to this state of things, that subterfuges which in the common intercourse of society would disgrace a man forever, are passed lightly over, or perhaps in public estimation more than redeemed by the dexterity of the evasion-a connivance which if extended to the whole of human traffic, would banish all its securities from the world. This goes very far to show, that it is not religious principle which sustains the integrity of human society; but the necessity of the case;" that both the practice of morality and the demand for it, are measured by the operations of a self love, which so far from signalizing any man, or prepar

ing him for eternity, he possesses in common with the fiercest and most degenerate of his species."

Before leaving this topic, we must be permitted to turn the attention of the reader for a moment, to some of the illustrations which have occurred to our own minds in confirmation of the humiliating conclusion, to which Dr. C. has conducted us in the preceding argument. One of the first which presents itself, is found in the history of the late war, or rather of the restrictive system which preceded it. We allude to custom-house oaths, which from being in our country held almost as sacred, as the oath of a witness in a court of justice, became proverbially unworthy of confidence; a circumstance which was so far from stamping the character of the false swearer with infamy, that it was regarded by multitudes, as a commendable proof of dexterity and enterprise. In this particular there has doubtless since been a great change for the better. But who will say, that it has been effected by the reforming efficacy of religious principle? Had man been governed by such a principle, the evil would never have existed. The oath of the custom-house would have retained its hold unbroken upon the conscience. That it did not, goes to show, how little we could depend upon the most solemn asseverations of men, if placed in circumstances where a regard to their own interest bound them as slightly to truth and integrity, as does the oath under which they speak, though attended with its solemn appeal to the Searcher of the heart, and with all its tremendous bearings upon the retributions of eternity. We mean not to say, that every natural man could be induced by the prospect of gain or impunity, to swear falsely; but that such swearing may even become fashionable, as in the case to which I have alluded, and that this affords additional evidence of the desperate depravity of man.

Another illustration of the same kind, might be drawn from that soi