MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



689 



Moral would be in the highest degree pernicious, unless the 

 Phiioiophy. nature of man were altered with the nature of things ; 

 ' and vice and misery banished from the face of the 

 earth. The present state of things is exactly accommo- 

 dated to the present circumstances of human nature. 

 Our very virtues would perish, were things different 

 from what they are. Were men rendered independent 

 of each other, by the too bountiful provision of nature, 

 there would be no room for the tender charities of 

 sympathy, benevolence, and mutual assistance. In the 

 present state of human nature, it is necessary for our 

 improvement that we should " eat our bread with the 

 sweat of our brow." 



The appetite of thirst also gives rise to some singu- 

 lar consequences, which have a very considerable effect 

 on our moral feelings. Water is the natural beverage 

 to which instinct directs every animal, when deprived 

 of its mother's milk ; and thirst, when not gratified, 

 become* the most excruciating torment. As men, in 

 many situations, could not readily command a supply 

 from springs, or running streams, they would natural- 

 ly look out for a substitute : this thy would find in 

 the juice of fruits, and succulent herbs. In attempt- 

 ing to preserve this as long as possible, they would 

 find a singular change produced by fermentation ; a 

 change which made the liquor keep much longer, 

 whilst it communicated to it new and pleasant quali- 

 ties. A field is thus opened up for a new species of 

 industry and ingenuity ; and also for the exercise of a 

 new set of moral qualities : for these newly invented 

 liquors intoxicate, whilst they exhilarate, and remove 

 mental depression, at the risk of intemperate excesses, 

 It would soon, however, be found that excessive ex- 

 citement either gave birth to immoral practices, which 

 cool reason condemned ; or was succeeded by a corre- 

 sponding depression, which more than counterbalanced 

 the preceding elevation. This would tend to teach 

 moderation, and would afford another opportunity of 

 learning those lessons of temperance, and self-denial, 

 which are alike essential to virtue, and to happiness. 



The sexual appetite gives birth to mtny important 

 consequences, moral, physical, and political. It is 

 wisely ordered, by the author of our nature, that this 

 feeling does not begin to operate, till reason can, in 

 some measure, controul its excesses ; and till man is 

 enabled, by his ownTWbur, to support his offspring. 

 Were rt to operate sooner, there would be an excess of 

 population, without the means of subsistence ; and the 

 mind and body would be alike enervated, and unfitted 

 for the attainment of those useful qualities which are 

 necessary for the business of life. In man, this appe- 

 tite gives birth to love, with all its tender associations 

 and endearments ; a passion totally unknown to the 

 lower animals, hi its more refined sense : but which, 

 in the human species, stimulates the mind to the most 

 noble exertions, or enriches it with the most amiable 

 fevt'mgf, or soothes it by the most pleasing hopes. 



Thts appetite, in the lower animals, is gross, and 

 evanescent, being easily satiated with periodical grati- 

 fication. In man, the attachment being founded on 

 mutual esteem, and valuable mental endowments, and 

 the stimulus being not periodical but permanent, the 

 connection between the sexes is, in its very nature, cal- 

 culated to be bating ; and hence arises the permanent 

 connection of mstrriage, which, in almost every coun- 

 considered as indissoluble, except by the death 



f 



?, n consid- 

 ers of A* 



But besides this, there is another reason, founded in 

 the very constitution of human nature, why the mar- 



VOL. XIV. FART II. 



riage contract should be indissoluble. For who is to Moral 



support the offspring, during their long immaturity, Philosophy. 



if the connection between the parents be dissolved ? S """Y" < ' 



Promiscuous concubinage would soon dissolve all the 



charities of life, and undermine the pillars of society. 



But marriage keeps alive the parental feeling, by keep- 



ing the child in the presence of its parents ; and this 



again strengthens the attachment between husband 



and wife, by placing before their view the pledges of 



their mutual endearments. In the case of the lower 



animals, the first of the offspring is always independ- 



ent before another is produced : in the case of man, 



there may be a dozen dependent children at once, in 



different degrees of helplessness: for additional off- 



spring is produced before the former is independent : 



and, thus, a succession of ties strengthen the matri- 



monial connection ; and a thousand feelings are gene- 



rated in the mean time, which bind man not only to 



his family, but to his species. 



It has been supposed by some, that there is a con- Different 

 gregating propensity in man, as among other gregari- opinions re- 

 ous animals ; and that he is driven instinctively to de- *Pf ctin g tlie 

 sire the society of his species. Others again suppose 

 him to be completely anti-social ; and that he is indue- 

 ed to seek the fellowship of his species, merely as the 

 means of defence against animals more powerful than 

 himself. Whenever we find two opinions on the same 

 subject, diametrically opposite to each other, we have 

 reason to conclude that neither of them is exactly true ; 

 or, at least, that they have not been stated with suffi- 

 cient explanation or qualifications. 



VVu do not think it possible to prove that there is in 

 man a principle similar to that which operates in gre- 

 garious animals, in making them desire the society of 

 their species. There is, indeed, in man, a strong social 

 propensity, which results necessarily from the consti- 

 tution of his nature, but is not, we believe, an ulti- 

 mate principle. Suppose the whole human race to 

 have sprung from one pair, and give to this pair a 

 more than ordinary degree of longevity ; and you sec 

 at once a complete system of society, and the origin of 

 civil polity, arising out of the conjugal connection ; 

 consolidated by parental and filial ties, and gradually 

 extending its ramifications, till a tribe or nation is con- 

 stituted, acknowledging a common principle of asso- 

 ciation, and tracing its origin to the same head. 



In this view of the subject, there is a necessary, but 

 not an instinctive principle of association ; and society 

 will be found to be held together by rational, yet un- 

 avoidable ties ; since our natures are so constituted, 

 and our circumstances so disposed, that we cannot but 

 feel their obligation. 



The opinion which supposes men to have associated 

 merely from the conviction of their own helplessness, 

 is still more untenable than that which ascribes their 

 association to a gregarious instinct. This conviction 

 may be a very good additional reason to keep them to- 

 gether ; but it never was the principle on which any 

 society was originally formed. Man is born in society, 

 ami trained to the love of society by numberless pow- 

 erful associations : it is only in society that his powers 

 can be evolved, and his faculties called into exercise : 

 we may therefore conclude, with certainty, that this is 

 the state for which he was intended by the author of 

 his nature ; and that the social system is not the result 

 of accident, but of infinite goodness, and unerring 

 wisdom. 



When society is widely extended, common laws, and 

 common religious principles are brought in aid of the 

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