CHAP. V.] OPENING MANHOOD 1847 TO 1850. 141 



6. What do particular men think of this principle ? 

 What are their doctrines ? 



7. What is the best criticism of right and wrong, or 

 what (to us) is absolute right ? 



8. What are the best motives of human actions ? 



9. How are these motives to be implanted without 

 violating the laws of human action ? 



10. What might, or rather what will, mankind become 

 after this has been effected ? 



Moral Philosophy differs from Nat. Phil, in this, that 

 the more new things we hear of in Nat. Phil, the better; but 

 in Mor. Phil, the old things are best, 'so that a common 

 objection to Mor. Phil, is that everybody knows it all before. 

 If a' man tells you that tyranny and anarchy are bad things, 

 and that a just and lawful government is a good thing, it 

 sounds very fine, but only means that when men think the 

 government bad from excess or defect they give it the name 

 of tyranny and anarchy. The ancient virtue of Tyrannicide 

 was a man's determination to kill the king whenever he dis- 

 pleased him. Thus it is easy to call a dog a bad name to 

 beat him for. But there are other parts of Mor. Phil, in 

 which there are differences of opinion, such as the nature 

 of selfishness, self-love, appetites, desires, and affections, dis- 

 interestedness (what a word for a rush at !), which belong 

 to the first three questions, and so on. I have told you 

 something (p. 129) of three laws which I had been con- 

 sidering. In all parts of Mor. Phil, these three laws seem 

 to meet one, and in each system of Morals they take a 

 different form. Now, that I might not deceive myself in 

 thinking that I was safe out of the hands of the philosophers 

 who argue these matters, I have been looking into the books 

 of Moralists the most opposed to one another, to see what it 

 is that makes them differ, and wherein they agree. The 

 three principles concerning the nature of man are continually 

 changing their shape, so that it is not easy to catch them in 

 their best shape. Nevertheless : 



Lemma : Metaphysics. A man thinks, feels, and wills, 

 and therefore Metaphysicians give him the three faculties of 

 cognition, feeling, and conation. 



