Praise
Praise an acknowledgment made of the excellency or perfection of any person or action, with a commendation of the same. "The desire of praise," says an elegant writer, "is generally connected with all the finer sensibilities of human nature. It affords a ground on which exhortation, counsel, and reproof can work a proper effect. To be entirely destitute of this passion betokens an ignoble mind on which no moral impression Is easily made, for where there is no desire of praise there will also be no sense of reproach; but while it is admitted to be a natural and in many respects a useful principle of action, we are to observe that it is entitled to no more than our secondary regard. It has its boundary set, by transgressing which it is at once transformed from an innocent into a most dangerous passion. When, passing its natural line, it becomes the ruling spring of conduct; when the regard which we pay to the opinions of men encroaches on that reverence which we owe to the voice of conscience and the sense of duty, the love of praise, having then gone out of its proper place, instead of improving, corrupts, and instead of elevating, debases our nature." See Young, Love of Fame; Blair, Sermons, vol. 2, ser. 6; Jortin, Diss. No. 4 passim; Wilberforce, Praeft. View, ch. 4 § 3; Smith, Theory of Moral Sent. 1, 233; Fitzosborne, Letters, No. 18.
