But when we talk of the good effects of any preju dice. we must be understood to speak only of those prejudices which lean to virtue's side. We have very little fault to find with that prejudice which makes a mother believe her own child the finest that ever was born ; hut there are few prejudices so harmless as this ; they generally incline with preponderating bias to the wrong side ; and often present insuperable obstacles to the dissemination of correct and en,;g1,tebeel principles. Prejudice is, in many cases, more dangerous than vice ; a man can never have the effrontery to vindicate the latter ; and however much he may he attached to it, he is generall ashamed to avow it. But the case is w holly different when a man is under the dominion ol preju dice; he then glories in his delusion, and is ready to become a martyr to his error.
If what we have said on the subject of habit he cor rect, we ought to reckon all our vices habits ; our virtues ought. not to be accounted so, in our view of the foundation of morals, except when particular circum stances have given unusual prominence to some parti cular branch of a general duty.* Few of the duties of life are indeed so obvious as to spring up spontaneously in the human mind ; most of them are the result of experience, instruction, or ex ample ; and so far they may be accounted habits ; as we often understand by that term all acquired qualities. But the general habits of right conduct, like the habits of speaking or walking, are so familiar to the generality of mankind, that we consider them as natural results ; and, indeed, they may with propriety be reckoned so ; for the leading truths of morality, though some of them may not be palpable at first view, become more obvious every time they are presented to the mind ; it sees their bearings and connections more clearly, and perceives them to he enforced by a thousand analogous circum stances and events in the general economy of provi dence. They then become axioms, instead of corolla ries ; and that which was originally the result of painful study, and patient investigation, assumes the place of a first principle.
But vice is always contrary to right reason, and to the natural order of things; it is persisted in to the ob vious detriment of our best interests ; and it is only in consequence of a certain obliquity, introduced by habit into the physical and moral constitution of man, that it is enabled to hold its ground in the face of so many discouragements and dissuasives. Bad habits, by long indulgence. become almost irresistible ; the man who has been accustomed to the stimulus of artificial excite ment, becomes languid when it is withheld, and would as soon be deprived of meat and drink. as denied the gratifie_tion of his acquired appetites. The immediate consequence of excess is langour ; a useful lesson to prevent repetition of the same offence against nature. But mankind have discovered artificial stimulants to overcome constitutional depression ; and these will be most readily resorted to in time of need ; whore they are found to answer the purpose. reason has little chance in arguing against them ; they have two most conclusive recommendations in their favour ; they pre sent a remedy for present uneasiness, and they are much more palatable than lessons of self-denial, the only cure for the moral maladies of the human mind.
Hence we every day sec attempts to reconcile luxury with health, and excess with enjoyment ; and every such attempt has a tendency to perpetuate and strengthen the evil, and to render emancipation more hopeless. The
son of Dion, who had been corrupted by Dionysius, chose to put an end to his own existence, rather than submit to the restraints which the wisdom of his father attempted to impose ; and such facts are perfectly familiar to our observation, for we daily see men falling the voluntary victims of their vices, in spite of the most powerful mo tives and inducements to reformation of conduct.
It has often been observed, that bad habits are more steady and consistent in their operation than good ones ; and it is not difficult to account for the fact. Our vir tues carry us to the very verge of vice ; that is to say, the slightest excess either in good or indifferent quali ties, constitutes a moral offence ; and how readily may even a good man be betrayed by the warmth of his feelings, by the influence of example, or of unexpected temptations ! But bad habits never can make any ap proximation to the confines of virtue ; the man who in dulges them, has turned his back upon it ; and every step that he advances carries him farther from the paths of wisdom.
In every judicious system of moral education, few things are more deserving of attention than the forma tion of habits. The great object to be aimed at in early culture, is the complete occupation of the mind by some employment which may lay the foundation of useful ha bits in after life ; or, at least, may prevent the formation of such as are wrong. And where bad habits have been acquired, they arc not to be conquered by the power of argument or of demonstration ; they are to be overcome only through the influence of some counteracting prac tice, which must be made sufficiently interesting to en gage the feelings, and abstract the attention from the hurtful habits which have engrossed it. To effect a re formation in such circumstances, is a work of extreme difficulty ; but it ought not to be abandoned in despair. The most pernicious habits have often been acquired from the want of congenial employment ; for if a man is either idle or forced to do what he dislikes, he has every chance to seek for pleasure from forbidden grati fications. We should think it advisable to give every young person who is not condemned to manual labour, as many securities as possible against the formation of evil habits ; and ample resources are furnished in culti vating the pleasures of taste, or in the departments of the arts, or of elegant accomplishments, or of polite lite rature, or of scientific research, or of harmless amuse ment. And we believe it has often happened, that, from injudicious restraints, or from the mind being forced into an unnatural channel, the worst consequences have been produced ; and the young have been led to seek from vice, that pleasure which might have been found more pure and ample in congenial occupations, or in in nocent recreations. We are for diminishing none of the natural resources of human enjoyment ; we would re commend them, not only as means of happiness, but as securities for virtue ; and if vice is excluded, %ve shall not be much disposed to find fault with human employ ments. With this reservation, we would adopt the sen timent of Hesiod, even in the sense in which Socrates's accusers charged him with using it.