42 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



man who has any regard to his own happiness and 

 welfare, will find his best reward in the practice of 

 every moral duty. 



CLXI 



Virtue is undoubtedly beneficent ; but the man is 

 to be envied to whom her v/ays seem in anywise 

 playful. And though she may not talk much about 

 suffering and self-denial, her silence on that topic 

 may be accounted for on the principle fa va sa>is 

 dire. 



CLXII 



If mankind cannot be engaged in practices "full 

 of austerity and rigour," by the love of righteousness 

 and the fear of evil, without seeking for other com- 

 pensation than that which flows from the gratifica- 

 tion of such love and the consciousness of escape 

 from debasement, they are in a. bad case. For they 

 will assuredly find that virtue presents no very close 

 likeness to the sportive leader of the joyous hours in 

 Hume's rosy picture ; but that she is an awful 

 Goddess, whose ministers are the Furies, and w^hose 

 highest reward is peace. 



CLXIII 



Under its theological aspect, morality is obedience 

 to the will of God ; and the ground for such obedi- 

 ence 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 perfect holiness, or, 



