694 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



Moral tneration may be considerably extended ; but this 

 Philosophy. wou ]d on iy be tracing the ramifications of one or two 

 ~~Y~ m * original principles, which assume different aspects ac- 

 cording to the circumstances in whicTi they are exhi- 

 bited. It would be to confine our attention to the 

 branches, the foliage, and the fruit, without consider- 

 ing the root by which they are nourished ; or the culti- 

 vation which is necessary to render them fresh and 

 vigorous. 



Of the benevolent affections decidedly original, are 

 love and parental affection : these lead us at once, with- 

 out reasoning, and without calculation of consequences, 

 to desire the happiness of those who are the objects of 

 them : and we believe, that from these two, most, if 

 not all, the other benevolent affections may be de- 

 rived. 



Parental The love of a parent to his child is irresistible : it is 



affection, a strong constraining principle, alike imperative on 

 man and the greater portion of the brute creation. 

 Some among the ancients imagined that there was a 

 kind of undefinable feeling which they called -;yn, 

 inclining the hearts of parents and children to each 

 other, though, from any accident, their features and 

 persons should not have been previously known. This 

 notion now seldom finds a place, except in the dreams 

 of romance. But though the feeling be divested of 

 those mysterious powers, which some, who had more 

 imagination than philosophy, once ascribed to it, it is 

 still sufficiently prominent, and asserts its decided claim 

 as one of the strongest original feelings of our nature. 

 The parental feeling is powerfully manifested in the 

 lower animals. Every boy must remember how art- 

 fully he has been misled by the partridge, the snipe, 

 the lapwing, or the wood-pigeon, when they feigned 

 distress, and exposed themselves to evident danger, for 

 the protection of their young. A hen, proverbial for 

 cowardice, will attack the most formidable mastiff, 

 when he comes too near her brood ; and it is curious to 

 observe the intimidating effect of rage, even when de- 

 void of strength : the most powerful animals often 

 shrink from the feeblest assailant, when it is armed 

 with the reckless courage inspired by parental affec- 

 Instancee. tion. We have seen a sheep fairly beat off a fox who 

 attempted to seize her lamb. And as a farther illus- 

 tration of the power of parental affection, and of the 

 intimidation or respect which the courageous display 

 of it inspires into the most powerful animals, we may 

 mention a recorded fact which must be familiar to 

 many readers. A lion who had broke out of a mena- 

 gerie in a town in Italy, seized a child whom he found 

 in the street, and was carrying it off: the mother per- 

 ceiving the circumstance, threw herself, in a frantic 

 manner, before the lion, and loudly demanded her 

 child. The animal, astonished or terrified, dropt his 

 intended prey, and allowed the distracted mother to 

 carry off her child in safety. 



In man, indeed, the parental feeling derives addi- 

 tional force from the principle of association, and a 

 thousand adventitious aids are brought into action, to 

 strengthen and confirm its power. We may, nay, we 

 must become more attached to our own children than 

 to the children of others, were it for nothing else than 

 the mere frequency of intercourse : and as soon as we 

 see our caresses appreciated, and our anxious desire to 

 please repaid by a smile, an additional bond of endear. 



Strongly 

 manifested 

 in the brute 

 creation. 



ment is created, and a mutual interchange of love is Moral ' 

 established. Philosophy, 



We wonder that this was not perceived by the accu- ~ *~* 

 rate Dr. Reid to be sufficient to account for the strong ' a n ^"^ 

 affection which a nurse entertains, even for a child that her nurs- 

 is not her own. " It is very remarkable," he observes, ling. 

 " that when the office of rearing a child is transferred 

 from the parent to another person, nature seems to 

 transfer the affection along with the office. A wet 

 nurse, or even a dry nurse, has commonly the same 

 affection for her nursling as if she had born it. The 

 fact is so well known, that nothing needs be said to 

 confirm it, and it seems to be the work of nature *.'' 

 It is indeed the work of nature, acting on the infalli- 

 ble principles o: association ; but, in its origin, it has 

 nothing akin to parental affection, which is an inborn, 

 not an implanted quality, and which may be strength- 

 ened by various associations, though it is not generated 

 by them. 



The desire of founding a family, and transmitting a 

 name to posterity, may operate with some as an in- 

 ducement to pay particular attention to the rearing of 

 their offspring. But these are only secondary consid- 

 erations ; and the feeling operates in full force, where 

 they are unfelt and unknown. For even when the 

 prospect of a family presents nothing but additional 

 burdens, and accumulated cares, yet even then the 

 parental feeling is twined round the heart ; and that 

 man would be reckoned little better than a monster, 

 who would hesitate to risk life itself for the safety of 

 his child. 



But though this principle can exist in the midst of 

 poverty and misery, it may be weakened, and some- 

 times wholly obliterated, through the prevalence of 

 luxury, or the love of pleasure. The sanctioned fre- 

 quency of infanticide among many nations arises from 

 the parents finding their children an obstruction to 

 their individual gratifications. On this principle is 

 founded the society of the Arreoys in the South Sea 

 islands: the society is, or rather was, held in the high- 

 est respect, and all who became members of it were 

 bound in the most solemn manner to destroy all their 

 children. An instance is recorded of a member of this 

 society being married to a daughter of one of the 

 Kings, by whom he had eight children, who were all 

 murdered in succession, without the slightest imputa- 

 tion of blame. We are happy to record the triumph 

 of Christianity over this most barbarous and inhuman 

 practice )-. 



It is not only among the ignorant and uninformed 

 votaries of pleasure that this subversion of parental af- 

 fection has been witnessed : it has often been found to 

 exist to a most disgraceful extent, during periods of the 

 highest intellectual refinement: for nothing is sacred 

 to the love of pleasure ; it prostrates every generous 

 affection, and erases from the human heart those cha- 

 racters which were engraven on it by the hand of its 

 Maker. Strong as the parental feeling is, then, we 

 may see the necessity of every accessary aid that can 

 be brought into action, to maintain its influence against 

 the deadening effects of luxury, and the love of indul- 

 gence. And Providence, in its wisdom, has furnished 

 such aids. In fashionable life, children are little re- 

 garded ; and if they sometimes appear less spoiled than 

 the children of the lower orders, it is only because they 



* Active Powers, p. 151, 4to. 



t Christianity is now (1819) the acknowledged religion of all the islands under the command of Pomare, King of Taheite. 



