OCR Text |
Show o Man'o Sense of Ambition. Although Imitation la one of the great Instruments used hy Providence In bringing our nature towards Its perfection, yet If men gave themselves them-selves up to imitation entirely, and each followed the other, and so on In an eternal circle, U is easy to see thai thero never could too 'any Improvement Im-provement amongst ttvera.' Men must remain aa brutes do. the same at the end at they are at thla day, and that they were In the beginning of the world. To prevent this, Ood has tmpljutted in man a sense of ambition, ambi-tion, and a satisfaction arising from tho contemplation of hla excelling LU fellows In something deemed valuable amongst them. It Is thla passion that drives men to a!! tho ways we see In use of signalizing themselves, and that tends to make whatever excites In a man the Idea of this distinction to very pleasant. It has been so very " strong as to make 'very miserable men take comfort that tbey were so preme In misery and certain It Is that where wo cannot distinguish ourselves by something excellent, we begin to take a complacency In some singular Infirmities, follies, or defects of one kind or other. flurke |