hich the image is reflected, disturbed
and confused; a just figure is immediately presented, without any art
or attention. And it seems a reasonable presumption, that systems and
hypotheses have perverted our natural understanding, when a theory,
so simple and obvious, could so long have escaped the most elaborate
examination.

But however the case may have fared with philosophy, in common life
these principles are still implicitly maintained; nor is any other topic
of praise or blame ever recurred to, when we employ any panegyric or
satire, any applause or censure of human action and behaviour. If we
observe men, in every intercourse of business or pleasure, in every
discourse and conversation, we shall find them nowhere, except the
schools, at any loss upon this subject. What so natural, for instance,
as the following dialogue? You are very happy, we shall suppose one to
say, addressing himself to another, that you have given your daughter
to Cleanthes. He is a man of honour and humanity. Every one, who has
any intercourse with him, is sure of FAIR and KIND treatment. [Footnote:
Qualities useful to others.] I congratulate you too, says another,
on the promising expectations of this son-in-law; whose assiduous
application to the study of the laws, whose quick penetration and early
knowledge both of men and business, prognosticate the greatest honours
and advancement. [Footnote: Qualities useful to the person himself.]
You surprise me, replies a third, when you talk of Cleanthes as a man
of business and application. I met him lately in a circle of the gayest
company, and he was the very life and soul of our conversation: so much
wit with good manners; so much gallantry without affectation; so much
ingenious knowledge so genteelly delivered, I have never before observed
in any one. [Footnote: Qualities immediately agreeable to others,]
You would admire him still more, says a fourth, if you knew him more
familiarly. That cheerfulness, which you might remark in him, is not a
sudden flash struck out by company: it runs through the whole tenor of
his life, and preserves a perpetual serenity on his countenance, and
tranquillity in his soul. He has met with severe trials, misfortunes as
well as dangers; and by his greatness of mind, was still superior to
all of them [Footnote: Qualities immediately agreeable to the person
himself]. The image, gentlemen, which you have here delineated of
Cleanthes, cried I, is that of accomplis