492 ?tt'0 Theories of Morals. [Book X. 



to fociety, the great advantage of which feems to con- 

 fift in the increafe of intellectual pltafure*. 



Among moral writers, two theories, materially dif- 

 ferent, have long exiiled, refpefting the nature of our 

 fentiments of virtue and vice. Our love of the 

 former, and deteftation of the latter, is by the one 

 party afierted to be an, inflin&ive principle, indepen- 

 dent of knowledge, or of former ideas admitted by 

 the five fenfes ; and by the other, to be nothing more 

 than the refult of experience or information. 



For the firfr. of thefe hypothefes, the arguments 

 are many and forcible, ift, There are, it is obferved, 

 in all languages, words equivalent to duty and in- 

 tereft, which men have conftantlydiftinguifhed in their 

 flgnification. id, The emotions which are produced 

 by the contemplation of what is right and wrong in 

 conduct, are different from thofe which are produced 

 by a calm regard to our own happinefs ; fo much fo, 

 that we judge extremely differently of the conduft of 

 other men, and of ourfelves in the fame circumftances. 

 3d, The fentiment of approbation or difguft which is 

 excited by any adion is inftantaneous, and not the effet 



* " It is of the utmoft confequence to morality and religion, 

 that the affections and paflions mould be analyzed into their fimple 

 compounding parts, by tracing the fteps of the aflbciations which 

 concur to form them ; for thus we may le.irn how to cheriih and 

 improve good ones, check and root out fuch as are mifchievous 

 and immoral, and how to fuit our manner of life, in fome tole- 

 rable meafure, to our intellectual and religious wants." &c. 

 " The world is, indeed, fufficiently flocked with general precepts 

 for this purpofe ; and whoever will follow thefe faithfully, may 

 expect good fuccef?. Hj\vever, the doftrine of aflbciation, when 

 traced up to the firlt rudiments of underftanding and affefeion, 

 unfolds fucli a fcene as cannot fail both to inftrucl and alarm all 

 fuch as have any degree of interefted concern for themfelves, or 

 of a benevolent one for others." Hartley. 



Of 



