the sentiments of mankind, with re|gard to the character and conduct both of themselves and others. That the world judges by the event, and not by the design, has been in all ages the complaint, and is the great discouragement of virtue. Every body agrees to the general maxim, that as the event does not depend on the agent, it ought to have no influence upon our sentiments, with regard to the merit or propriety of his conduct. But when we come to particulars, we find that our sen|timents are scarce in any one instance ex|actly conformable to what this equitable maxim would direct. The happy or un|prosperous event of any action, is not on|ly apt to give us a good or bad opinion of the prudence with which it was conduct|ed, but almost always too animates our gratitude or resentment, our sense of the merit or demerit of the design.
Nature, however, when she implanted the seeds of this irregularity in the human breast, seems, as upon all other occasions, to have intended the happiness and perfec|tion of the species. If the hurtfulness of the design, if the malevolence of the affec|tion, were alone the causes which excit|ed
