It is well that those motives which owe nothing to reason in their birth should not afterwards receive either nourishment or support from it. If in their present desultory state they produce so many mischiefs, what would be the case if they were to be organized into systems, and under the direction of pure abstract reason? Any object that provoked a momentary resentment or excited our jealousy might plunge us into a war that could only be expiated by seas of blood. But in a war of mere interest or passion, it is surely allowable to sit down and count the cost, and to strive to moderate our pride and resentment instead of inflaming them. Virtue, truth, and patriotism require nothing of us but an inviolable resolution and integrity in the defence of those rights which are the common privilege of humanity; the rest is a calculation of prudence, not a stern command of duty that admits neither of compromise or delay. To defend at the point of the sword, and at the risk of every thing valuable, our title to the possessions that are neither necessary nor durable in their own nature, that are never worth a hundred years’ purchase, that may crumble to pieces of their own accord, or slip out of our hands in various ways before the end of the contest, and which afterwards will be no more secure ‘against infection and the hand of war,’ against the insidious or desperate designs of the enemy, against the breath of accident or unforeseen decay than they were before—is madness and folly. It is to defeat the intended favours of Fortune, by paying for them before-hand a price much greater than they can ever be worth. It is to squander away the whole estate of our present happiness and comfort in purchasing security for that, for which no security ever was or can be given—the continued smiles of fortune. We cannot without a presumption that will involve its own punishment think of placing beyond the reach of chance or fate that which by its own nature and the fluctuation of human affairs is liable to change.