The third believes that the first good of life is making others
happy, and with systematic benevolence examines every claim upon his
bounty, and, if he finds it worthy, never dismisses it unsatisfied. It
was the faith within the act that gave this distinctive quality to the
three donations. The first put his faith in ease, the second in the
opinion of the world, and the third in doing good to the neighbor; and
the common sense of the community judges the actions accordingly. All
the actions of life range themselves under one or other of the three
heads represented by these gifts; namely, the love of self, or ease; the
love of the world, or ambition; and the love of the neighbor, or true
charity. Every man is probably governed in turn by each of these loves;
but in every man one of them takes the lead and dominates over the other
two; and just in proportion as he gives himself up to the dominion
of one of these loves and rejects the sway of the others he leads a
consistent life. Society may assert that life is everything, and faith
nothing, when it talks abstractly; but its common sense ever shows more
wisdom by transferring the quality of the motive to the act, as often as
it finds any clew to the knowledge of motive. Of course, society makes
many blunders in these judgments, because it reads the heart of man
very imperfectly; but the nature of man leads him constantly to attempt
penetrating the heart before forming his opinion of an action.
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