and moderate, holds in pleasure only, not in pain, every degree of which is foftened by time and cuftom. Custom is a catholicon for pain and distress of every fort; and of this regulation the final caufe is fo evident as to require no illuftration.

Another final caufe of cuftom will be highly relished by every perfon of humanity; and yet has in a great measure been overlooked. Cuftom hath a greater influence than any other known principle, to put the rich and poor upon a level. Weak pleafures, which fall to the fhare of the latter, become fortunately ftronger by custom; while voluptuous pleasures, the lot of the former, are continually lofing ground by fatiety. Men of fortune, who poffefs palaces, fumptuous gardens, rich fields, enjoy them less than paffengers do. The goods of Fortune are not unequally distributed: the opulent poffefs what others enjoy.

And indeed, if it be the effect of habit to produce the pain of want in a high degree while there is little pleasure in enjoyment, a voluptuous life is of all the leaft to be envied. Those who are accustomed

to high feeding, eafy vehicles, rich furniture, a crowd of valets, much deference and flattery, enjoy but a small share of happiness, while they are expofed to manifold diftreffes. To fuch a man, inslaved by ease and luxury, even the petty inconveniencies of a rough road, bad weather, or homely. fare-on a journey, are ferious evils. He lofes his tone of mind, becomes peevish, and would wreak his refentment even upon the common accidents of life. Better far to use the goods of Fortune with moderation. A man who by temperance and activity has acquired a hardy conftitution, is, on the one hand, guarded against external accidents, and is, on the other, provided with great variety of enjoyment ever at command.

I fhall close this chapter with the discus fion of a question more delicate than abftrufe, viz. What authority cuftom oughtto have over our tafte in the fine arts? It

is

proper to be premised, that we chearfully abandon to its authority every thing that nature leaves to our, choice, and where the preference we bestow has no foundation other than whim or fancy. There appears

no

no original difference betwixt the right and the left hand: cuftom however has eftablished a difference, fo as to make it aukward and disagreeable to use the left where the right is commonly used. The various colours, though they affect us differently, are all of them agreeable in their purity. But custom has regulated this matter in another manner: a black skin upon a human creature, is to us disagreeable; and a white skin probably not lefs fo to a negro. Thus things originally indifferent, become agree able or disagreeable by the force of cuftom. Nor ought this to be surprising after the dif made above, that the original agree covery ableness or difagreeableness of an object, is, by the influence of cuftom, often converted into the oppofite quality.

Concerning now thofe matters of taste where there is naturally a preference of one thing before another; it is certain, in the first place, that our faint and more delicate feelings are readily fufceptible of a bias from custom; and therefore that it is no proof of a defective tafte, to find thefe in fome meafure under the government of custom,

Drefs,

Drefs, and the modes of external behaviour, are juftly regulated by cuftom in every country. The deep red or vermilion with which the ladies in France cover their

cheeks, appears to them beautiful in spite of nature; and strangers cannot altogether be justified in condemning this practice, confidering the lawful authority of custom, or of the fashion, as it is called. It is told of the people who inhabit the fkirts of the Alps facing the north, that the fwelling they univerfally have in the neck is to them agreeable. So far has cuftom power to change the nature of things, and to make an object originally difagreeable take on an oppofite appearance.

But as to the emotions of propriety and impropriety, and in general as to all emotions involving the fenfe of right or wrong, custom has little authority, and ought to have none at all. Emotions of this kind, being qualified with the consciousness of duty, take naturally place of every other feeling; and it argues a fhameful weakness or degeneracy of mind, to find them in any case so far fubdued as to fubmit to custom.

Thefe

These few hints may enable us to judge in fome measure of foreign manners, whether exhibited by foreign writers or our own, A comparison betwixt the ancients and the moderns, was fome time ago a favourite fubject. Thofe who declared for the former, thought it a fufficient juftification of ancient manners, that they were fupported by the authority of cuftom. Their antagonists, on the other hand, refufing fubmiffion to cuftom as a standard of tafte, condemned ancient manners in feveral inftances as irrational. In this controverfy, an appeal being made to different principles, without the flightest attempt on either fide to eftablish a common ftandard, the difpute could have no end. The hints above given tend to establish a standard, for judging how far the lawful authority of custom may be extended, and within what limits it ought to be confined. For the fake of illuftration, we shall apply this standard in a few inftan

ces.

Human facrifices, the cruellest effect of blind and groveling fuperftition, wore gradually out of use by the prevalence of rea

fon