Page:Headlong Hall - Peacock (1816).djvu/219

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
HEADLONG HALL.
211

Mr. Jenkison shook hands at parting with his two brother philosophers. "According to your respective systems," said he, "I ought to congratulate you on a change for the better, and to condole with you on a change for the worse: though, when I consider whom you have chosen, I should violate every principle of probability in doing so."

"You will do well," said Mr. Foster, "to follow our example. The extensive circle of general philanthropy, which, in the present advanced stage of human nature, comprehends in its circumference the destinies of the whole species, originated, and still proceeds, from that narrower circle of domestic affection, which first set limits to the empire of selfishness, and, by purifying the passions and enlarging the affections of mankind, has given to the views of benevolence an increasing and illimitable expansion, which will finally diffuse