xi THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALS 



things, is external and inflexible, even by the will of the 

 Supreme Being : The standard of the other, arising from 

 the internal frame and constitution of animals, is ultimately 

 derived from the Supreme Will, which bestowed on each 

 being its peculiar nature and arranged the several classes 

 and orders of existence." (IV. pp. 376-7.) 



Hume has not discussed the theological theory 

 of the obligations of morality, but it is obviously 

 in accordance with his view of the nature of those 

 obligations. ( Under its theological aspect, morality 

 is obedience to the will of God; and the ground 

 for such obedience is two-fold: either we ought to 

 obey God because He will punish us if we disobey 

 Him, which is an argument based on the utility 

 of obedience; or our obedience ought to flow from 

 our love towards God, which is an argument based 

 on pure feeling and for which no reason can be 

 given.^) For, if any man should say that he takes no 

 pleasure in the contemplation of the ideal of per- 

 fect holiness, or, in other words, that he does not 

 love God, the attempt to argue him into acquir- 

 ing that pleasure would be as hopeless as the en- 

 deavour to persuade Peter Bell of the " witchery of 

 the soft blue sky." 



ln whichever way we look at the matter, moral- 

 ity is based on feeling, not on reason; though 

 reason alone is competent to trace out the effects of 

 our actions and thereby dictate conduct. Justice 

 is founded on the love of one's neighbour; and 

 goodness is a kind of beauty. The moral law, like 

 the laws of physical nature, rests in the long run 

 upon instinctive intuitions, and is neither more nor 



