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Untitled Article
stantiad happiness of those around them . Ll 5 ie I&Dlt&ti ; . l | VQ for others ikwe be seriously intent upon securing the greatest poi tion 6 { jgur&-enjoyment for ourselves . Yet such is the want of reflection in
mankind , and such aie the defects erf early education , that the sel . fish spirit , by which I understand , a mistaken estimate , an ill direc ted pursuit , of happiness , grows
up with us from the cradle to the grave * Most of us are of too much importance in our own eyes . In various ways and degrees , concealed from us by our wilful ignorance of our characters , we sa .
erifiee to self : the same inordinate attachment to it which , on the stage of the world , makes its appearance in war , oppression , corruption and licentiousness , is the parent , in private life , of that pride and vanity and conceit , that unsatisfied thirst for wealth and
influence and pleasure which always affects , and in many in . stances destroys the peace , the respectability and the characters both of families and individuals . Selfishness is the spring of those violent dissent ions which infest
nations . The insatiable desire of something unpossessed , prompts to an attack upon the present occupier . Success urges to further £ ds of aggression : every fresh conquest strengthens the hope of another and a greater ; and it is not till the child of ambition
becomes its victim , it is not till , like a building of disproportionate height , he falls under the weight of what he perhaps deemed the means of grandeur and support , that he c&n be Tendered sensible i of * any connexion between tis own bappiness and the happiness of " Ms neighbours , i - ;
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When he set out tw the * career of cruelty and bloody A ^ aa- \ £ &ide * z liberately niaHgneBt > . an < i revengew ful ? Had he lost all the feelings of the man ? Did he indulge none but such as the world ascribes
to apostate and degraded spirits f This ^ probably , . Would be an exaggeration of the fact . T ! be tniih , I believe ^ is tbattoaheope ration of selfishness ; under < ttee > font * of
avarice or ambition , are owing the crimes which accompanied , the miseries which followed upon , his enterprizes * In th& minds of those who are eith er 4 > oim to power or placed in circumstances fa *
vourable to the wish of acquinDg and extending it $ Ul * e rte # e $% f power is often the maftter * principle : and hence the ivaridias ^ at different periods , bepn ^ rpYefmn with invaders who have marked
their progress by terror and devas * . nation . ¦ ¦ . ' ;; ' <¦ . . Hiw bns . Nor are the mischievous effects of selfishness linrited t * o ! 1 ! puMNf scenes , whether ^ of ? warfa re WsA
rapine , or of dishonesty a ^ nd Hoktw ted confidence . When > on an humbler theatre , power tramples uptin right ^ when violence iori fraud seizes the poor man ' s gardens of of
herbs , with the vi ^ w makiirg this addition to its own vitneyard , when the great rule of justice is slighted and despised , and a niultitude of petty artifices ar ^ i iii tro ^ duced into commercial tramac *
tions , in all such instances tile selfishness of oar naturesbtenfits down , as far as it can , the barriers which the laws of God and man have erettod for ita restraint .
There ar $ ^ tUl ^^ th ^ r ^ vteajysain which the seiiihh principle b ruinous to the qhayRCier of him . wilO Q hffl *^ ^ ^> 49 ) 9 MSS ^ ftB ( dw ? ° " cial comfort . Tfee fbve oJibing
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2 § Sl- ¦ Kin ^^^ : ^ 4 iap ' -Cn : S ^ ish 9 t €$ S 4 ^ , ' y , - k ^ ' v . ' Nl
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1814, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2439/page/18/
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