Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4)

SELECTED FROM
THE WORKS OF FEYJOO,
AND
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH,
JOHN BRETT, ESQ.
VOLUME THE SECOND.
LONDON:
Printed for the Translator:
Sold by H. PAYNE, Pall-Mall; C. DILLY, in the Poultry; and T. EVANS, in the Strand.
MDCCLXXX.
In a Letter from an Old Judge, to his Son who was newly raised to the Bench.
I. I do not know, my Son, whether to congratulate or condole with you on the information you give me, of his Majesty having honoured you with a Judge’s robe. I contemplate you as placed in a state of slavery, which, although it is an honourable one, must always remain and continue a slavery. Already you are neither mine nor your own, but belong to the public at large. The obligations of this charge should not only emancipate you from your father, but detach you from yourself also. There is an end of your considering your convenience, your health, or your ease; and you have only now to attend to the duties and discharge of your conscience; you should look upon your own good as a foreign concern, and regard that of the public as your own. You are already divested of neighbours, friends, or kindred; you have no country, and must have no regard for the tyes of flesh and blood. Do you think I mean to say, you should cease to be a man? No, certainly; but I would have it understood, that the affections of the man should live in such a state of separation from the duties of the Judge, that there should not be the slightest commerce or correspondence between them.