we rather acquit our selves of our own Obligations, than lay any upon them by our Beneficence.
It is a secret aversion to Justice that makes us fonder of giving than returning, of obliging than acknowledging. Thus we see the most liberal, generous men, are not usually the most just. Justice includes a regularity that lays a constraint upon them, as being founded on a constant order of Reason, opposite to those natural impulses, which are the hinges upon which Liberality almost always moves. There is, I know not what heroical in great Liberality, as well as in great Valour; and there is a great analogy between those two Virtues; the one raising the Soul above the consideration of Wealth, and the other pushing on Courage beyond a concern for Life. But with all these gay and generous Motives, without good Conduct, the one becomes ruinous, and the other fatal.
Those whom cross accidents of Fortune have undone, are pitied by all the world, because it is a misfortune attending the condition of humanity, to which every body is liable: those that are reduc'd to Misery by vain profusion, raise more contempt than commiseration; because it is the effect of a private Folly, from which every man has the good conceit to think himself free. Add to this, that nature always suffers a little by compassion, and to relieve her self of an uneasy thought, she contemplates the folly of the Prodigal, instead of resting upon the prospect of the Beggar. All things consider'd, it is enough for private men to be beneficent; nor ought this to proceed from a facility of nature, that lazily parts with what it has not strength to keep. I despise the weakness which is preposterously call'd Liberality; and hate no less the vanity of those that never do a kindness but for the pleasure of boasting of it.
