551 



Propositions of science assert a matter of fact : an existence, a 

 coexistence, a succession, or a resemblance. The propositions 

 now spoken of do not assert that anything is, but enjoin or 

 recommend that something should be. They are a class by 

 themselves. A proposition of which the predicate is expressed 

 by the words ought or should be, is genetically different from 

 one which is expressed by is, or will be. It is true that, in the 

 largest sense of the words, even these propositions assert some 

 thing as a matter of fact. The fact affirmed in them is, that 

 the conduct recommended excites in the speaker s mind the 

 feeling of approbation. This, however, does not go to the 

 bottom of the matter; for the speaker s approbation is no 

 sufficient reason why other people should approve ; nor ought 

 it to be a conclusive reason even with himself. For the pur 

 poses of practice, every one must be required to justify his 

 approbation : and for this there is need of general premises, 

 determining what are the proper objects of approbation, and 

 what the proper order of precedence among those objects. 



These general premises, together with the principal con 

 clusions which may be deduced from them, form (or rather 

 might form) a body of doctrine, which is properly the Art of 

 Life, in its three departments, Morality, Prudence or Policy, 

 and ^Esthetics ; the Eight, the Expedient, and the Beautiful 

 or Noble, in human conduct and works. To this art, (which, 

 in the main, is unfortunately still to be created,) all other arts 

 are subordinate; since its principles are those which must 

 determine whether the special aim of any particular art is 

 worthy and desirable, and what is its place in the scale of 

 desirable things. Every art is thus a joint result of laws of 

 nature disclosed by science, and of the general principles of 

 what has been called Teleology, or the Doctrine of Ends;* 

 which, borrowing the language of the German metaphy 

 sicians, may also be termed, not improperly, the Principles of 

 Practical Reason. 



A scientific observer or reasoner, merely as such, is not 



* The word Teleology is also, but inconveniently and improperly, employed 

 by some writers as a name for the attempt to explain the phenomena of the 

 universe from final causes. 



