the object of a transitory resentment. We can scarce avoid looking upon him with chagrine and uneasiness; and the rude and brutal are apt to vent upon him that spleen which his intelligence gives oc|casion to. Tigranes, King of Armenia, struck off the head of the man who brought him the first account of the approach of a formidable enemy. To punish in this manner the author of bad tidings, seems barbarous and inhuman: yet, to reward the messenger of good news, is not disagree|able to us; we think it suitable to the bounty of kings. But why do we make this difference, since, if there is no fault in the one, neither is there any merit in the other? It is because any sort of reason seems sufficient to authorize the ex|ertion of the social and benevolent affec|tions; but it requires the most solid and substantial to make us enter into that of the unsocial and malevolent.
But tho' in general we are averse to enter into the unsocial and malevolent affections, tho' we lay it down for a rule that we ought never to approve of their gratifica|tion unless so far as the malicious and un|just intention of the person, against whom
