234 OPERATIONS SUBSIDIARY TO INDUCTION. 



covered, the prejudice with which novelties are regarded is 

 now, in some degree at least, against them, instead of being 

 on their side. 



An example may make these remarks more intelligible. 

 In all ages, except where moral speculation has been silenced 

 by outward compulsion, or where the feelings which prompt 

 to it still continue to be satisfied by the traditional doctrines 

 of an established faith, one of the subjects which have most 

 occupied the minds of thinking persons is the inquiry, What 

 is virtue ? or, What is a virtuous character ? Among the 

 different theories on the subject which have, at different times, 

 grown up and obtained partial currency, every one of which 

 reflected as in the clearest mirror, the express image of the 

 age which gave it birth ; there was one, according to which 

 virtue consists in a correct calculation of our own personal 

 interests, either in this world only, or also in another. To 

 make this theory plausible, it was of course necessary that the 

 only beneficial actions which people in general were accus- 

 tomed to see, or were therefore accustomed to praise, should 

 be such as were, or at least might without contradicting 

 obvious facts be supposed to be, the result of a prudential 

 regard to self- interest ; so that the words really connoted 

 no more, in common acceptation, than was set down in the 

 definition. 



Suppose, now, that the partisans of this theory had con- 

 trived to introduce a consistent and undeviating use of the 

 term according to this definition. Suppose that they had 

 seriously endeavoured, and had succeeded in the endeavour, 

 to banish the word disinterestedness from the language ; had 

 obtained the disuse of all expressions attaching odium to 

 selfishness or commendation to self-sacrifice, or which implied 

 generosity or kindness to be anything but doing a benefit in 

 order to receive a greater personal advantage in return. Need 

 we say, that this abrogation of the old formulas for the sake 

 of preserving clear ideas and consistency of thought, would 

 have been a great evil ? while the very inconsistency incurred 

 by the coexistence of the formulas with philosophical opinions 

 which seemed to condemn them as absurdities, operated as a 



