56 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY* MORAT. 



essentially, all our obligations ; and when we serve 

 other men, \ve, in fact, labour for ourselves ; so, too, 

 in improving ourselves, we are qualifying ourselves 

 to rentier the highest service to others. The class 

 of mutual duties which supports the social relations 

 may be divided into three branches the duties of 

 the individual to society, those of society to the indi- 

 vidual, and those of societies to each other. Under 

 the name of societies, we include all the forms and 

 degrees of human association the family, city, coun- 

 try, and mankind. The duties of the individual 

 towards society differ with the station which he 

 occupies, and the nature of social institutions. The 

 duties of the private man, the magistrate, and the 

 statesman, are very various. Free institutions, as 

 they greatly increase the sphere of efficiency, propor- 

 tionably enlarge that of duty ; and the rapid growth 

 of such institutions, in our day, must give rise to new 

 classes of social duties. Perhaps a wide field still 

 remains open to moralists, in the exposition of the 

 duties which society owes to its members. Some 

 philosophers have been so blind to these as to main- 

 tain that the public interest would justify the sacrifice 

 of an innocent individual. And how long have 

 mankind been in learning the respect which they owe 

 to the individual liberty of thinking, speaking, and 

 writing ? Is this respect properly understood, even 

 at present ? Have politicians duly learned the regard 

 which they owe to the moral law ? Is it a long 

 period since the writers on general law have consi- 

 dered with proper attention the rules which society 

 ought to impose on itself in the application of pun- 

 ishments ? But it is the relations of societies to- 

 wards each other which principally demand the 

 meditations of moralists. There is a social selfishness 

 which meets a ready excuse, since each member of a 

 society is apt to consider his individual character 

 merged in his social, and that his duties towards the 

 association with which he is connected, justify acts 

 and feelings which would be censurable in his com- 

 merce with others in his individual capacity. Hence 

 that esprit de corps, so bitter in its animosities, and 

 so unscrupulous in its ambition, arming nation against 

 nation, from commercial rivalry or lust of territorial 

 aggrandizement, from wounded pride or thirst of con- 

 quest. The code of international Jaw is yet very im- 

 perfect, and needs to be completed by reference to 

 the code of morality. See Paley's Principles of Moral 

 and Political Philosophy ; Adam Smith's Theory of 

 Moral Sentiments ; Dugald Stewart's Philosophy of 

 the active and moral Poicers of Man ; Degerando's 

 Perfect ion nement Moral ; Mackintosh's History of 

 the Progress of Ethical and Political Science (Lon- 

 don, 1830.) 



We shall now say a few words on the different the- 

 ories of moral sentiments. Philosophers have en- 

 deavoured to establish some general principle from 

 which the laws of practical morality may be derived, 

 and to which, in doubtful points, we may refer, to 

 determine our rule of conduct in particular cases. 

 The Hindoo moralists find their moral principle in the 

 precept to purify the soul from all sensual desires. 

 Plato, who drew from Eastern fountains, expresses 

 his law of morality under three different forms 

 Strive to resemble the Deity. Let your passions be 

 in harmony with each other. Live in accordance 

 with the fundamental type of the soul, or inborn ideas 

 (or, according to the Stoics, with nature). Aristotle 

 considered virtue and prudence as the same, and re- 

 commended the golden mean, or a rational avoidance 

 of extremes ; virtue, according to him, consists in the 

 habit of mediocrity according to right reason. Fj>i- 

 curus (who did not, however, understand his precept 

 in the low sense usually ascribed to it) founded his 

 moral system on the nilo, Live to enjoy thyself; 



whirli lijis been considered to refer to the happiness 

 which virtue gives ; and it is certain that Epicurus 

 himself was a model of virtue. The new Platonists 

 followed their master on this point. The fathers of 

 the church did not attempt to establish any universal 

 moral principle ; nor did the Scholastics. The Bri- 

 tish moralists have founded their systems on different 

 principles; Hutcheson's rests upon the principle of 

 benevolence, and assumes a moral sense ; Ferguson 

 followed the Epicurean theory; Samuel Clarke places 

 virtue in acting according to the nature of things, by 

 which man will facilitate his progress to his destined 

 sphere. Adam Smith assumes sympathy asthe moral 

 principle; Wollaston, the acting according.to the truth 

 of things ; lord Shaftesbury, the maintenance of a 

 proper balance of the affections. Paley's system is 

 founded on utility. Cudworth considers virtue as an 

 innate principle. Of the continental moralists, Gro- 

 tius and Puffendorf derive all duties from the funda- 

 mental obligation to improve the condition of others 

 and of one's self, and therefore command us to 

 endeavour to do all in our power to promote the 

 general good. The precept of Crusius, who con- 

 siders duty an obligation to God rather than to man, 

 is, Obey all the precepts of God. Thomasius, Leib- 

 nitz, and Wolf give, as their fundamental principle, 

 Aim at perfection ; Kant, Be thy own lawgiver, and 

 strive less for dominion over others than over thyst-lf. 

 In all theories of morals, two questions arise What 

 is virtue ? How is it recommended tons ? And all 

 theories on each point may finally be reduced to 

 three ; on the first, that virtue is- benevolence, or 

 prudence, or propriety ; and on the second, that it is 

 recommended to us by self-love, or reason, or a moral 

 sense. 



MORAT (Murten ; Latin, Muratuni) ; a town 

 in the Swiss* canton of Friburg, en the lake of Moral 

 (Murtensee), fourteen miles west of Berne. It de- 

 rives its celebrity from the battle fought here be- 

 tween the soldiers of the Swiss confederacy and 

 Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, in 1476. After 

 the loss of the battle of Granson (March 3), the fiery 

 duke collected a new army of 40,000 men, and pre- 

 sented himself (June 10) before the gates of Morat. 

 To the aid of the Swiss came their allies, the 

 Rhenish cities, and Rene, the young duke of Lor- 

 raine, who had been driven from his estates by 

 Charles, was with them, but not, as some have said, 

 in the command. Their forces were much inferior to 

 those of the duke ; but, having reconnoitred the 

 position of the enemy, they attacked him, drove in the 

 out-posts, entered the camp with the fugitives, and, 

 being joined by the garrison of Morat, gained a com- 

 plete victory, making themselves masters of the 

 hostile camp, artillery, and baggage. Charles him- 

 self escaped merely by the speed of his horse, and 

 accompanied by only twelve horsemen, fled to Soigne, 

 a town of Champagne, seventy miles from Morat. 

 The remains of the killed (15,000) were thrown into 

 a large pit, and covered with lime and earth. A large 

 building was afterwards erected, in which they were 

 collected, and which bore the inscription, D. 0. M. 

 Caroli inclyti etfortissimi Burgundiai Duds Exerci- 

 tits, Muratum obsidens ab Helvetiis acsus hoc Sui 

 Monumentum reliquit. Anno 1476. And beneath were 

 these words : 



Dies Gebein ist der Bursundischen ScJiar, 



Im vierzehnhundert tieoeig und seclisten J/ihr, 



Vor Murten (lurch ein Eidgenosssch'ift 



F.rlegt mil Beiiland Gottes Kraft. 



Auf der xehiitausend Rittern Tag 



Geschah dies grosse Niederlag. 



This monument was destroyed by the French army 

 in 1798, and a lime-tree, surrounded with a fence, 

 planted in its place. In 1822, the Swiss confederacy 



