An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson].

  • Adam Ferguson
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    400/438 page 390
    die love of perfonal eminence, and the defire of fame, although they fometimes lead to thecom- miffion of crimes, yet always engage men in pur- fuits that require to be fupported by fome of the greatcft qualities of the human foul; and if eminence is the principal object of purfuit, there is, at leaft, a probability, that thofe qualities may be ftudied on which a real elevation of mind is railed. But when public alarms have ceafed, and contempt of glory is recommended as an ar- ticle of wifdom, the fordid habits, and mercenary difpofitions, to which, under a general indiffer- ence to national objects, the members of a po- lilhed or commercial ftate are expofed , muft prove at once the rnoft effectual fupprefifion of every liberal fentiment, and the rnoft fatal reverfe of all thofe principles from which communities derive their ftrength and their hopes of preferv- ation. It is noble to poffefs happinefs and independ- ence, either in retirement, or in public life. The characterise of the happy, is to acquit them- felves well in every condition; in the court, or in the village; in the fenate, or in the private retreat. But if they affecd any particular ftation, it is furely that in which their actions may be rendered rnoft extenfively ufeful. Our confidering mere retirement, therefore, as a fymptom of mo- deration, and of virtue, is either a remnant of that fyftem , under which monks and anchorets, in former ages, have been canonized; or proceeds from a habit of thinking, which appears equally
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