MORALITY MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



Spain which contained any chef d'cettvre, and, by this 

 indiscriminate study of different masters, acquired 

 remarkable originality of manner. Ho died at Bada- 

 joz, in 1586. His works are scattered through Spain. 

 The picture of St Veronica, in the church of the bare- 

 footed Trinitarians, at Madrid, is his master-piece. 



MORALITY; a sort of allegorical play,so termed 

 because it consisted of moral discourses in praise of 

 virtue and condemnation of vice. It succeeded the 

 Mysteries. The dialogues were carried on by such 

 characters as Good Doctrine, Charity, Faith, Pru- 

 lence, Discretion, Death, &c., whose discourses were 

 of a serious cast ; while the province of making mer- 

 riment for the spectators descended from the Devil 

 in the Mystery to the Vice or Iniquity of the Morality, 

 who usually personified some bad quality, and whose 

 successor we find in the clown or fool of the regular 

 English drama. (See France, Literature of, division 

 Drama.) Moralities were occasionally exhibited as 

 late as the reign of Henry VIII., and, after various 

 modifications, assumed the form of the, Mask, which 

 became a favourite entertainment at the court of 

 Elizabeth and her successor. See Drama. 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY is the science which 

 treats of the motives and rules of human actions, and 

 of the ends to which they ought to be directed. The 

 moral law is the law which governs intelligent and 

 free beings, and which determines the character of 

 vice and virtue. It is a natural law, independent of 

 any human institution ; a religious law, which ema- 

 nates from the supreme Legislator, obligatory in itself, 

 through the conviction which it produces, universal 

 and immutable. The moral law revealed itself in the 

 infancy of society. Philosophers are its expounders, 

 not its creators. Their voice is but the echo of con- 

 science. The first moralists confined themselves to 

 expressing the law of duty in maxims, or to illustra- 

 ting it in apologues. It needed no proof beyond a 

 mere enunciation. Their simple precepts have been 

 honoured in all ages. Three chief causes have con- 

 curred in developing and establishing the rules of 

 practical morality, positive laws, religious institu- 

 tions, and civilization. Positive laws are only the 

 written expression of the law of duty engraved in the 

 human soul, with such provisions as the violence of 

 the human passions requires to enforce its precepts. 

 Legislators, it is true, have had in view rather the 

 general interests of society than the interest of 

 morality in the abstract ; their punishments are pro- 

 portioned to effects rather than intentions. But the 

 common good is usually found to accord with indivi- 

 dual duty ; and men require, in the provisions for the 

 public weal, an acknowledgment of the moral law. 

 They require to be addressed in the name of justice. 



While civil institutions have regulated the conduct 

 of man in society, religious institutions have pene- 

 trated into the sanctuary of conscience. Moral and 

 religious sentiments are developed almost spontane- 

 ously, and have a natural sympathy. From its 

 alliance with morality, religion becomes refined and 

 elevated. Christianity has blended them in the pre- 

 cepts of love to God and love to man. 



What we call civilization, is a complex result 

 which supposes the existence of close, extended, and 

 varied relations among men, the development of 

 industry, the progress of intelligence and taste, the 

 establishment of general order, the refinement of pub- 

 lic and private manners. It is, in part, the fruit of 

 civil and religious institutions. Practical morality 

 exerts a powerful influence on it, strengthening the 

 ties which unite individuals, fortifying the respect for 

 equity and benevolence, encouraging labour, and 

 assuring its reward by protecting property, favouring 

 the progress of intelligence by nourishing the love of 

 truth, and improving taste by purifying and elevating 



the sentiment of the beautiful. Civilization, in its 

 turn, promotes practical morality. The closer and 

 more varied the relations among men become, the 

 more sensible do they grow to their mutual duties. 

 Labour gives man the sentiment of self-respect ; the 

 progress of science and the arts aids virtue, by en- 

 lightening the mind, and accustoming it to noble and 

 delicate pleasures. If such are the influences of laws, 

 religion, and civilization upon morality, we need not 

 be surprised that they have, in turn, been considered 

 its source, from a limited view of its nature. But if 

 the moral law is, in reality, prior to all these, why, 

 it may be asked, does it appear to vary so much in 

 its effects in different places and ages ? To this we 

 reply, that practical morality supposes two conditions 

 the idea of duty faithfully comprehended, and the 

 authority of duty strongly felt. But the idea may be 

 partially or erroneously understood, and the senti- 

 ment may be blunted or weakened. The law of duty, 

 in the abstract, is simple,and not liable to be mistaken; 

 but its applications are often complex and delicate, 

 requiring the exercise of a strong and cultivated 

 reason, and therefore affording great occasion for 

 mistake. The feeling of duty, too, requires a certain 

 degree of reflection, and becomes extinct in a life of 

 violence and sensual excess. It may, moreover, 

 become perverted in consequence of positive ordi- 

 nances, civil and religious. But the very abuse of 

 the notion of duty supposes its existence; and we 

 find not a few instances in which the native energy 

 of the moral feeling has risen superior to positive 

 institutions, and wrought fundamental changes in the 

 laws, religious and other institutions, which had sought 

 to enchain it. We might add, that the doctrines of 

 philosophy have often been much more the effect of 

 the manners of a particular country or age than the 

 agents which modified them. 



Moral precepts may be distinguished into two 

 orders, with reference to the degree of obligation 

 which they impose the imperative and the meritori- 

 ous. The first commands us to render to every man 

 his due, including, of course, our duties to ourselves ; 

 the second, to do for every man, ourselves included, 

 all which is in our power, and therefore to strive for 

 our own highest improvement. But the limits of 

 these two classes cannot be distinctly defined. In 

 considering what the moral law enjoins, we soon 

 perceive that there are degrees in our duties. Just 

 as actions may differ in criminality, so may they also 

 differ in merit ; and the degree in both cases will 

 depend upon accompanying circumstances ; and cir- 

 cumstances are often such as to make it difficult to 

 determine on which side the balance of duty pre- 

 dominates. But though man is often driven to choose 

 between conflicting duties, he is never obliged to 

 choose between two criminal acts ; although, in some 

 cases an act of guilt will present itself under the 

 specious guise of a means for a good end ; which has 

 led some speculators to the revolting doctrine, that 

 the end justifies the means a doctrine sufficient to 

 excuse the wildest excesses of fanaticism, which, in 

 its blind zeal to effect what it deems a laudable ob- 

 ject, tramples under foot the most sacred rights. 

 U'hen we inquire what gives a moral character to 

 actions, we learn that it is the intention. A man's 

 acts may, however, be sinful, although his intention 

 at the time may not have been bad, if they origi- 

 nated in prejudice or ignorance, occasioned by a 

 sinful neglect of the means of information. Proper 

 instruction in moral duties is therefore every man's 

 highest interest and highest duty. 



Moral duties have been distinguished into three 

 great classes duties to God, to our fellow-men, and 

 to ourselves but, though they may be classified, they 

 are not to be separated. Duties to God comprise, 



