is, that when the habit has acquired its greatest vigor, the relish is gone; and accordingly we often smoke and take fnuff habitually, without fo much as being confcious of the operation. We muft except gratification after the pain of want; the pleasure of which gratification is the greatest when the habit is the most vigorous: it is of the fame kind with the pleasure one feels upon being delivered from the rack, the caufe of which is explained above*. This pleasure however is but occafionally the effect of habit; and however exquifite, is avoided as much as poffible, by making provision for the appetite, and preventing want. With regard to the pain of want, I can difcover no difference between a generic and a specific habit; but these habits differ widely with respect to the positive pleasure. I have had occafion to obferve, that the pleasure of a specific habit de cays gradually till it become imperceptible: not fo the pleasure of a generic habit; which pleafure, being fupported by variety of gratification, fuffers little or no decay after it comes to its height. However it may be with other generic habits, the obfervation, I am certain, holds with respect to the pleafures of virtue and of knowledge the pleasure of doing good has an unbounded fcope, and may be fo variously gratified, that it can never decay: fcience is equally *Chap. 2. part 1. fect. 2. VOL. I. Cc unbounded; unbounded; our appetite for knowledge having an ample range of gratification, where difcoveries are recommended by novelty, by variety, by utility, or by all of them. In this intricate inquiry, I have endeavoured, but without fuccefs, to difcover by what particular means it is that cuftom hath such influence upón us and now nothing feems left, but to hold our nature to be fo framed, as to be fufceptible of fuch influence. And supposing it purposely fo framed, it will not be difficult to find out feveral valuable purpofes or final caufes. That the power of cuftom is a happy contrivance for our good, cannot have escaped any one who reflects, that bufinefs is our province, and pleasure our relaxation only. Now fatiety is neceffary to check exquifite pleasures, which otherwife would ingrofs the mind, and unqualify us for business. On the other hand, as business is fometimes painful, and is never pleasant beyond moderation, the habitual increase of moderate pleasure, and the converfion of pain into pleafure, are admirably contrived for difappoint. ing the malice of Fortune, and for reconciling us to whatever courfe of life may be our lot: How ufe doth breed a habit in a man! And to the nightingale's complaining notes Tune Tune my diftreffes; and record my woes. Two Gentlemen of Verona, at 5. Sc. 4. As the foregoing diftinction between intenfe and moderate, holds in pleasure only, every degree of pain being foftened by time, custom is a catholicon for pain and diftrefs of every fort; and of this regulation the final caufe is fo evident, as to require no illuftration. Another final caufe of cuftom will be highly relished by every perfon of humanity, and yet has in a great measure been overlooked; which is, that custom hath a greater influence than any other known caufe, to put the rich and the poor upon a level: weak pleasures, the fhare of the latter, become fortunately ftronger by custom; while voluptuous pleasures, the share of the former, are continually losing ground by fatiety. Men of fortune, who poffefs palaces, fumptuous gardens, rich fields, enjoy them lefs than passengers do. The goods of Fortune are not unequally distributed: the opulent poffefs what others enjoy. And indeed, if it be the effect of habit, to produce the pain of want in a high degree while there is little pleasure in enjoyment, a voluptuous life is of all the leaft to be envied. Thofe who are habituated to high feeding, eafy vehicles, rich furniture, a crowd of valets, much deference and flattery, enjoy but a small share of happinefs, while they are expofed to manifold di Cc 2 ftreffes. ftreffes. To fuch a man, inflaved by eafe and luxury, even the petty inconveniencies of a rough road, bad weather, or homely fare, in travelling, are ferious evils: he lofes his tone of mind, becomes peevish, and would wreak his refentment even upon the common accidents of life. Better far to ufe the goods of Fortune with moderation: a man who by temperance and activity hath acquired a hardy conftitution, is, on the one hand, guarded against external accidents; and, on the other, is provided with great variety of enjoyment ever at command. I fhall clofe this chapter with a point more delicate than abftrufe, viz. What authority custom ought to have over our tafte in the fine arts? In order to refolve this question, it is proper to be premised, that we chearfully abandon to its authority every thing that nature leaves to our choice, where there is no caufe for a preference, other than whim or fancy. There appears no original difference between the right hand and the left: custom however has established a difference, fo as to make it awkward and difagreeable, to ufe the left where the right is commonly used. The various colours, though they affect us differently, are all of them agreeable in their purity: but cuftom has regulated this matter in another manner; a black skin upon a human being, is to us difagreeable; and a white skin probably not lefs fo to a negro. Thus things, originally indifferent, become agreeable or difagreeable by the the force of cuftom. Nor ought this to be furprifing after the difcovery made above, that the original agreeablenefs or difagreeableness of an objest, is, by the influence of cuftom, verted into the oppofite quality. often con. Proceeding to thofe matters of taste, where there is naturally a preference of one thing before another; it is certain, in the firft place, that our faint and more delicate feelings are readily fufceptible of a bias from cuftom; and therefore that it is no proof of a defective tafte, to find thefe in fome meafure influenced by cuftom: drefs, and the modes of external behaviour, are justly regulated by custom in every country: the deep red or vermilion with which the ladies in France cover their cheeks, appears to them beautiful in fpite of nature; and ftrangers cannot altogether be justified in condemning this practice, confidering the lawful authority of cuftom, or of the fashion, as it is called: it is told of the people who inhabit the skirts of the Alps facing the north, that the fwelling they univerfally have in the neck is to them agreeable. So far has cuftom power to change the nature of things, and to make an object originally difagreeable, take on an oppofite appearance. But as to every particular that can be denominated proper or improper, right or wrong, cuftom has little authority, and ought to have none at all. The principle of duty takes naturally place of every other; and it argues a thameful weak |