PREJUDICES.* The name of prejudice is applicable to all the opinions which we form before reason can dis cuss, or judgment confirm them, and to all the motives which, without due examination, are the foundations of these opinions. Prejudices may, therefore, be either fa vourable or unfavourable : they may second a good reso lution, or subvert our best principles and tendencies ; and we ought no more to reject them with contempt, than to submit to them with confidence. Judgment ought to re main independent of prejudice : it ought neither to resist it, nor to substitute it in the place of reflection ; but to appreciate it according to its real and intrinsic merits. No opinion can be regarded as sufficiently enlightened, till all the prejudices connected with it have been analyzed, till they have been traced to their origin, and estimated by their just value.
Man comes into the world, destined to a considerably long existence, with faculties and intellectual energies, though great, yet scarcely adequate to the part he is called upon to perform. He knows nothing, and he wishes to know every thing ; he is acquainted only with a small por tion of the great chain of being ; he wishes to understand the whole system, and every minute department of it. His own experience is not sufficient to furnish him with the knowledge necessary to regulate his conduct. He is oblig ed therefore to adopt, upon the faith of others, the greater part of those principles by which his life must be directed. If he were not informed by those who have lived before him, what the comfort of the body, and what propriety required, he could not, without experience, regard it as necessary to clothe himself, to defend himself from cold, or to satisfy the demands of thirst or of hunger. The Deity, however, in creating him a social being, gave him a claim on the great mass of human knowledge which has been the result of the experience and observation of pre ceding generations. He imitates before he reasons ; and imitation is nothing else but the appropriation of the knowledge of the ages that are past. His physical facul
ties are developed in infancy, according to the example of those who have preceded him in life ; at that age, also, his moral principles are implanted and cultivated by those whose experience in the world is greater than his own; and when he attains to the age of manhood, he seems to be possessed of great knowledge and enlightened views, yet these cannot be regarded as exclusively his own, but as handed down to him by the generations who are no more.
The child who learns of his parents to love them, to clothe itself, to walk, to speak, to preserve itself from dan ger, is taught by them also, not only to think, and to judge, but to express thoughts which at e not his own, and to form opinions which he has not capacity to examine. 'Phis um form appropriation of the sentiments of others, is neces sary, and is inseparable from his situation in the world. Called upon continually to act and to decide before he has time or ability to form his own judgment, he is obliged to adopt principles, both moral and political, on the authority of others. His opinions also on subjects of history, ge ography, astronomy, physics, natural history, navigation, commerce, are not the result of his own observation and research, but are founded on the research and observation of others. In youth, in short, all our thoughts and actions are founded on prejudice, to which we are entirely subject till reason and judgment begin to be developed. In pro portion, however, as these are matured, we analyze, one after the other, the opinions which we previously embrac ed and were actuated by, and appreciate them by their own intrinsic excellence, as much, indeed, as it is possible for us to do so, while all the points of comparison, of which we are capable, and while all the notions on which we form our matured judgments, altogether or chiefly result from prejudice, and are founded upon it.