Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/118

 100 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, transitory life, consult only the feelings of nature and the interest of society- rrir.fiples There are two very natural propensities which we nature. "^''^Y distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispo- sitions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness of private life. The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue; and if those vir- tues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire, may be indebted for their s'afety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man. To the love of pleasure we may therefore as- cribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attril)ute most of the useful and respectable quali- fications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonized, would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature. The insensible and inactive disposition, which should be supposed alike destitute of both, would be rejected, by the common consent of mankind, as utterly incapa- ble of procuring any happiness to the individual, or any public benefit to the world. But it v/as not in this world that the primitive christians were desirous of making themselves either agreeable or useful. The piimi- The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of our tians^con- I'cason or fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded demnplea- conversation, may employ the leisure of a liberal mind. Juxury. Such amusements, however, were rejected with abhor- rence, or admitted with the utmost caution, by the severity of the fathers; who despised all knowledge that was not useful to salvation, and who considered all levity of discourse as a criminal abuse of the gift of ' See a very judicious treatise of Barbeyrac sur la Morale des Peres.