MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



685 



Moral is faint! v developed, in others grossly perverted; but 

 Philosophy- f n ajj exhibiting features of affinity, which compel us 

 > "^ - Y""~ "' to recognise its common origin, and to see that it has 

 an immutable foundation in the arrangements of Hea- 

 ven. 



The history of the various nations which have flour. 

 ished on the face of the earth, is chiefly interesting from 

 observing the development of the tame moral principle, 

 from the first simple elements on which it is founded, 

 till it is carried to the highest improvement and most 

 extensive application of which it i* susceptible. We 

 are often struck with the singularity of manners and 

 customs which we observe in different states, but our 

 v under vanishes on being made acquainted with their 

 circumstances, prejudices, and habits. That which at 

 first sight appeared singular or anomalous, is discovered 

 to be natural, in the imperfect state of improvement 

 which they have reached. It resembles the feelings of 

 a child, which, though springing oat of human nature, 

 and laying the foundation of the attainments of man- 

 hood, yet appear removed at an infinite distance from 

 the disciplined feelings of niaturer ycar. Thus we see 

 certain important priuciplet very imperfectly exempli- 

 fied in particular states of society : they are struggling 

 with prejudices which tend to repress then, and emer- 

 ging from the midst of circumstances which for a while 

 weaken their influence. They are, however, accommo- 

 dated to the taste of the nation at the dme ; and a pre- 

 mature reformer would in all probability rivet the chains 

 of prejudice, or ensure his own destruction ; whilst he 

 who watches the tide of public feeling, and seizes the 

 proper moment for innovating on public opinion, will 

 carry the whole nation along with him in a triumphant 

 career of improvement, and will lay the foundation of 

 principles and feelings which will never cease to oper- 

 ate till the nation shall cease to exist 



PrincipUi We *" ^ en astonished to see how slowly ami re- 

 f political luctantly some of the most obvious principles of politi- 

 *orU cal morals are recognised. The Lacedemonians put to 

 lowly n desAh the prisoners whom they took at .T'go Potamos, 

 *fi** though they were fighting the battles of their country. 

 Indeed the moat refined of the ancient nations generally 

 acted on the most contracted principles of political ex- 

 pediency ; and we more frequently meet with instances 

 of generosity in the case of a successful despot, than in 

 that of a free and high-minded people. How long was 

 it before the principles of civil liberty were understood, 

 and how imperfectly are they still understood over the 

 greater pert of the world. Yet nothing can be more 

 obvious than the foundation on which they rest. It is 

 evidently this, that no man has a right to restrain the 

 freedom of another, so long as he does not use it in a 

 way injurious to the public interest. Yet this principle 

 is counteracted by the love of power, which every man 

 feels, or by the "advantage which he may derive from 

 supporting a successful usurpation. In consequence of 

 these conflicting principles, there is a constant struggle 

 between the love of freedom on the one hand, and the 

 lore of power and the servility of interest, on the other ; 

 and even when freedom prevails, it cannot temper its 

 own triumphs, but by running into licentiousness sub. 

 verts its own rights, and often produces a prejudice in 

 the mind against it* fairest claims. 



Hut whilst we contemplate the gradual and imperfect 

 evolution of the moral principle in various states of 

 society, we see at the same time the beauty of God's 

 government, which makes the same principle 

 consolidate* the rudest states, cement the most 

 polished and the most powerful ; expanding with their 



Moral 

 rhilosophy. 



JLiberality 

 and for- 

 bearance 

 necessary 

 in estimat- 

 ing the 

 moral cha- 

 racter of 

 nations or 

 inditiduals. 



growing: wants and their advancin knowledge, till at 

 last it gives birth to feelings of which the ruder mind 

 could form no conception. Such a view is surely well 

 calculated to produce liberality and mutual forbearance. 

 We might almost as well find fault with a man for 

 being born Wind, as with an illiterate savage for not 

 feeling the finer moral sensibilities of our nature. The 

 faculty is not yet developed, because no excitement has 

 been applied to it ; and the individual thus circum- 

 stanced is like a child who has an ear for music, but, 

 from want of experience and training, cannot as yet 

 distinguish one tune from another. And the same esti- 

 mate which we apply to the moral state of nations, we 

 ought likewise to apply in judging of the characters of 

 individuals. How often do we see incongruities which 

 we lament, and which yet do not, on a fair estimate, 

 amount to moral delinquencies ! They arise rather from 

 some obliquity of the understanding-, which has been 

 disturbed by inveterate prejudice, or fettered by invin- 

 cible ignorance : and we ought to regard persons thus 

 unhappily situated, with the snme indulgence as we 

 view nations a century or two behind our own in point 

 of general improvement. In fact, every individual, in 

 his moral progress, has to go through all the stages 

 which have conducted nations, during the lapse of 

 many centuries, to their highest pitch of moral and po- 

 litical improvement. We see him, for instance, at one 

 time distinguished by the prejudices which character- 

 ized the tenth century. We see him struggling, with 

 difficulty, through the mists of ignorance, till at last 

 some event similar to the revival of letters, or the art 

 of printing, or the Reformation in religion, agitates his 

 mind, rouses his faculties, and raises his feelings to the 

 highest tone of moral refinement. 



Hitherto our attention has been directed almost sole- General 

 ly to those great general principles which God has es- view. 

 tablished in the constitution of our nature, or the ar- 

 rangements of his providence, to direct us in that course 

 of duty which is most consistent with his will, and with 

 our own happiness ; and we have endeavoured to show 

 that we are evidently directed, and to a certain extent 

 forced into the path which we ought to follow, in ful- 

 filling the will of Heaven, and prosecuting our own 

 happiness. Our object has been to show that the prin- 

 ciples of morals, so far from being accidental or conven- 

 tional, are fixed and immutable ; varying occasionally 

 so far as the exhibition of outward actions is concerned, 

 but permanent in their nature and character. Our in- 

 stincts, our appetites, our bodily powers, our mental 

 faculties, together with the whole constitution of na- 

 ture, point to the same goal, and conspire to produce 

 the same important results. Experience and observa- 

 tion confirm these obvious intimations, by showing us 

 that if hut we ought to do, is always most consistent with 

 our happiness and interest, and that whenever we vio- 

 late the invariable order prescribed and confirmed by 

 so many sanctions, the transgression never fails to bring 

 its own punishment along with it, and to remind us of 

 the eternal law by which our moral actions and feelings 

 should be regulated, and shall one day be judged. 



But whilst our duty is thus enforced by *o many 

 considerations, it must at the same time be remember- 

 ed that all our feelings have a tendency to excess ; that 

 every pa.'Mon seeks its immediate and direct gratifica- 

 tion ; whilst uch indulgence is in general utterly sub- 

 versive both of happiness and moral order. Hcnre the 

 unceasing conflict between our passions and our reason, 

 in which the latter is so often worsted ; and hence all 



