not steal," establishes the
right of private property. But it forbids us to make our own interest
and happiness our chief concern, to the disregard of the rights of
others and the general good; and requires us to make sacrifices of
feeling and interest for the benefit of others, and even sometimes to
prefer their happiness and interest to our own. This is the spirit of
genuine benevolence; and the exercise of it will impart far more
elevated enjoyment than can be derived from private advantage.

Were this disposition in exercise, it would cut off all ground of envy
and jealousy; it would remove the cause of most of the contentions that
arise in society; and mitigate, in a wonderful degree, all the ills of
life. Indeed, this principle lies at the foundation of all social
enjoyment. The reciprocity of mutual affection depends upon the exercise
of a self-sacrificing disposition; and the society where this does not
exist is intolerable. Nor is it feeling or interest alone that must be
given up. There is yet a more difficult sacrifice to be made, before we
can be, in any considerable degree, comfortable companions. _It is the
sacrifice of the will._ This is the last thing the selfish heart of man
is disposed to yield. He has taken his stand, and the pride of his heart
is committed to maintain it. He deceives himself, and compels conscience
to come to his aid; while, in reality, it is a matter with which
conscience has nothing to do, for the point might have been yielded
without doing violence to that ever-wakeful monitor, whose office is
thus perverted, and made to subserve the purposes of stiff-necked
obstinacy. A disposition to yield to the judgment and will of others, so
far as can be done conscientiously, is a prominent characteristic of
that charity which seeketh not her own; while an obstinate adherence to
our own plans and purposes, where no higher principle than expediency is
concerned, is one of the most repulsive and uncomfortable forms of
selfishness.

A selfish person never willingly makes the smallest sacrifice of feeling
or interest to promote the welfare or happiness of others. He wraps
himself up in his own interests and pursuits, a cheerless and forbidding
object. He would gladly know no law but his own will. He has a little
world of his own, in which he lives, and moves, and has his being. He
makes every one, with whom he comes in contact, contribute something to
his own selfish purposes. His overweening