part pursue, when in the range of its general conduct it has its choice to make between a distant, doubtful, sober, rational good (or _average_ state of being), and some one object of comparatively little value, that strikes the senses, flatters our pride, gives scope to the imagination, and has all the strength of passion and inclination on its side. The _main-chance_ then is a considerable exception, but not a fair one or a case in point, since it falls under a different head and line of argument.] The fault of reason in general, (which takes in the _whole_ instead of _parts_,) is that objects, though of the utmost extent and importance, are not defined and tangible. This fault cannot be found with the pursuit of trade and commerce. It is not a mere dry, abstract, undefined, speculative, however steady and well-founded conviction of the understanding. It has other levers and pulleys to enforce it, besides those of reason and reflection. As follows:— 1. The value of money is positive or specific. The interest in it is a sort of mathematical interest, reducible to number and quantity. Ten is always more than one; a part is never greater than the whole; the good we seek or attain in this way has a technical denomination, and I do not deny that in matters of strict calculation, the principle of calculation will naturally bear great sway. The returns of profit and loss are regular and mechanical, and the operations of business, or the _main-chance_, are so too. But, commonly speaking, we judge by the _degree_ of excitement, not by the ultimate quantity. Thus we prefer a draught of nectar to the recovery of our health, [and are on most occasions ready to exclaim,— ‘An ounce of sweet is worth a pound of sour.’] Yet there is a point at which self-will and humour stop. A man will take brandy, which is a _kind of slow poison_, but he will not take _actual_ poison, knowing it to be such, however slow the operation or bewitching the taste; because here the effect is absolutely fixed and certain, not variable, nor in the power of the imagination to elude or trifle with it. I see no courage in battle, but in going on what is called the _forlorn hope_.