ABSTRACT
The melancholy catastrophe of the king of France, and the horror it has excited in this country, call for investigation; because consequences of great importance seem likely to result from it, and, in proportion as these consequences may be important, it is requisite that the investigation should be cool and unimpassioned. Even in the ordinary situations, and common occurences of human life, great is the risk and danger of giving up our conduct to the guidance, even of those passions, which, when under the guidance and Control of reason, are valuable and amiable. The human passions may properly give energy to our actions, when reason has marked out their course, and fixed their boundaries; but, without these precautions, they are dangerous in the extreme; nor can any action, resulting merely from our passions, be denominated virtuous or moral, any more than the fidelity of a dog, the harmlessness of a sheep, or the attachment of a dove.
