d, it becomes mean and ridiculous. The doctrine of not
retaliating injuries is much better expressed in Proverbs, which is
a collection as well from the Gentiles as the Jews, than it is in the
Testament. It is there said, (Xxv. 2 I) "If thine enemy be hungry,
give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:"
[According to what is called Christ's sermon on the mount, in the book
of Matthew, where, among some other [and] good things, a great deal of
this feigned morality is introduced, it is there expressly said, that
the doctrine of forbearance, or of not retaliating injuries, was not
any part of the doctrine of the Jews; but as this doctrine is found in
"Proverbs," it must, according to that statement, have been copied from
the Gentiles, from whom Christ had learned it. Those men whom Jewish and
Christian idolators have abusively called heathen, had much better and
clearer ideas of justice and morality than are to be found in the Old
Testament, so far as it is Jewish, or in the New. The answer of Solon on
the question, "Which is the most perfect popular govemment," has never
been exceeded by any man since his time, as containing a maxim of
political morality, "That," says he, "where the least injury done to
the meanest individual, is considered as an insult on the whole
constitution." Solon lived about 500 years before Christ.--Author.] but
when it is said, as in the Testament, "If a man smite thee on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also," it is assassinating the dignity of
forbearance, and sinking man into a spaniel.

Loving, of enemies is another dogma of feigned morality, and has besides
no meaning. It is incumbent on man, as a moralist, that he does not
revenge an injury; and it is equally as good in a political sense, for
there is no end to retaliation; each retaliates on the other, and calls
it justice: but to love in proportion to the injury, if it could be
done, would be to offer a premium for a crime. Besides, the word enemies
is too vague and general to be used in a moral maxim, which ought
always to be clear and defined, like a proverb. If a man be the enemy
of another from mistake and prejudice, as in the case of religious
opinions, and sometimes in politics, that man is different to an enemy
at heart with a criminal intention; and it is incumbent upon us, and
it contributes also to our own tranquillity, that we put the best
construction upon a thing that it will bear. But even thi