acter with this wretched being, after having
quarrelled with human nature, that he should be still more
inveterate against a small part of her family, with whom
he was suffered to live on too intimate terms; for he
afterwards published another extraordinary piece--"The
Conduct and Good-Nature of Englishmen Exemplified in their
charitable way of Characterising the Customs, Manners, &c.
of Neighbouring Nations; their Equitable and Humane Mode of
Governing States, &c.; their Elevated and Courteous
Deportment, &c. of which their own Authors are everywhere
produced as Vouchers," 1777. One is tempted to think that
this O'Brien M'Mahon, after all, is only a wag, and has
copied the horrid pictures of his masters, as Hogarth did
the School of Rembrandt by his "Paul before Felix, designed
and _scratched_ in the true Dutch taste." These works
seem, however, to have their use. To have carried the
conclusions of the Anti-social Philosophy to as great lengths
as this writer has, is to display their absurdity. But, as
every rational Englishman will appeal to his own heart, in
declaring the one work to be nothing but a libel on the
nation; so every man, not destitute of virtuous emotions,
will feel the other to be a libel on human nature itself.

[371] "Human Nature," c. ix.

[372] Hobbes did not exaggerate the truth. Aubrey says of Cooper's
portrait of Hobbes, that "he intends to borrow the picture of
his majesty, for Mr. Loggan to engrave an accurate piece by,
which will sell well at home and abroad." We have only the
rare print of Hobbes by Faithorne, prefixed to a quarto
edition of his Latin Life, 1682, remarkable for its expression
and character. Sorbiere, returning from England, brought home
a portrait of the sage, which he placed in his collection; and
strangers, far and near, came to look on the physiognomy of a
great and original thinker. One of the honours which men of
genius receive is the homage the public pay to their images:
either, like the fat monk, one of the heroes of the _Epistolae
obscurorum Virorum_, who, standing before a portrait of
Erasmus, spit on it in utter malice; or when they are looked
on in silent reverence. It is alike a tr