Defence of Criminals 



opinion creates it. The theatre of morality is 

 in the passions, and there are (it is said) virtuous 

 and vicious passions eternally distinct from each 

 other. 



Here, then, we have abandoned the search for 

 a permanent moral code among the actions ; on 

 the understanding that we are more likely to find 

 such a thing among the passions. And I think 

 it would be generally admitted that this is a move 

 in the right direction. There are difficulties 

 however here, and the matter is not one which 

 renders itself up at once. Though, vaguely 

 speaking, some passions seem nobler and more 

 dignified than others, we find it very difficult, 

 in fact impossible, to draw any strict line which 

 shall separate one class, the virtuous, from the 

 other class, the vicious. On the whole we place 

 Prudence, Generosity, Chastity, Reverence, Courage 

 among the virtues and their opposites, as 

 Rashness, Miserliness, Incontinence, Arrogance, 

 Timidity, among the vices ; yet we do not seem 

 able to say that Prudence is always better than 

 Rashness, Chastity than Incontinence, or Reverence 

 than Arrogance. There are situations in which 

 the less honoured quality is the most in place ; 

 and if the extreme of this is undesirable, the extreme 

 of its opposite is undesirable too. Courage, it 

 is commonly said, must not be carried over into 

 foolhardiness ; Chastity must not go so far as the 

 monks of the early Church took it ; there is a limit 

 to the indulgence of the instinct of Reverence. In 

 fact the less dignified passions are necessary some- 



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