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    parents , attendants , or companions . Hence it appears that , according to the doctrine of association , a . child , even in its earliest infancy , cannot be otherwise than pleased with the sight of its parents or friends ; and that advancing years will strengthen these impressions , and confirm the dispositions and associations of which infancy has witnessed the commencement . Still further , a child wall quickly perceive that his own pleasure is in a great

    degree connected with that of those who are about him . Almost from his birth he converses with his equals ; and if he is one of a large family , he has many enjoyments and some sorrows in common with the rest . Here , then , are considerations in abundance to shew that , though originally a mere creature of matter and sense , the human being is placed in circumstances which necessarily give birth in a short time to sympathetic

    and benevolent affections ; and thus it appears that the interest which we gradually learn to take in the happiness of those around us , is originally derived from the concern we necessarily feel for any thing that conduces to our own enjoyments . It may , however , in process of time , completely lose all trace of this origin , and become altogether disinterested , in the strictest sense of the term . Indeed , we know that it is the constant and

    universal tendency of association to produce transformations of this kind . It is needless to multiply instances to shew that where things have been frequently connected together in the mind by the relation of means and end , those feelings which were at first excited by the end or result alone , are afterwards so connected with and transferred upon the means which were originally interesting merely as being instrumental to the effect , that the

    acquisition of these means shall excite pleasure for their own sakes . A remarkable confirmation of this position may be derived from the fact , that those persons whose benevolence has been most active , who have been most frequently prompted to take an interest in the welfare and relief of others , and who , consequently , have been so much more frequently led to transfer these pleasurable feelings to their immediate objects and sources , have always these affections in a higher state of improvement and cultivation .

    It appears , therefore , that we have not merely experience to prove it to be the fact , but just and enlarged views of human nature to point it out as the necessary result of the circumstances in which the human being is placed , that affections purely disinterested , lively feelings of pleasure on contemplating the happiness , of pain on beholding the sufferings , of others , altogether distinct from any idea of the connexion of such circumstances

    with our own condition or happiness , do gradually take root and grow to perfection in the human mind . But theory , I will venture to say even experience , authorizes us to go further than this ; and to conclude that these benevolent affections have a continual tendency to increase ; and that we are so constituted as to render this a necessary consequence of the various connexions which subsist between us and our fellow-creatures , and of that

    moral discipline which the circumstances of our present lot appear destined to exercise over our minds . We shall be naturally led to this conclusion , if we consider how much greater an object is the general welfare than that towards which the selfish affections are immediately directed ; in how much greater a variety of ways the pleasures and pains connected with it are likely to be excited ; the comparative meanness and insignificance of selfish objects and pursuits ; and the associations of generosity , dignity , and excellence , which are invariably annexed to the more enlarged and extensive affections . Thus we see that these must increase , while the others must necessarily decrease , in proportion as we come to see the littleness and conv

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    Hartley ' s Rule of Life . 597

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 597, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/13/