There are some minds so depraved, and entirely abandoned to wickedness,
so dead to all virtuous feelings, that the tenderness and humanity of
others, though exerted in their own favour, not only fail to make a
proper impression of gratitude upon them, but are not able to restrain
them from repaying benevolence with injuries. Moralists, in all
ages, have incessantly declaimed against the enormity of this crime,
concluding that they who are capable of injuring their benefactors,
are not fit to live in a community; being such as the natural ties of
parent, friend, or country are too weak to restrain within the bounds
of society. Indeed, the sin of ingratitude is so detestable, that none
but the basest tempers can be guilty of it. Men of low grovelling
minds, who have been rescued from indigence by the hand of benevolence,
or of charity, forget their benefactors, as well as their original
wretchedness; and as soon as prosperity flows upon them, it too often
serves only to rekindle their native rancour and venom, and they hiss
and brandish their tongues against those who are so inadvertent or
unfortunate as to have served them. But prudent people need not to be
admonished on this subject; for they know how much it behoves them to
beware of taking a snake into their bosom.
[Illustration]
[Illustration] [Page 219]