66 BISTORT of the SOCIETT. 



Dr C Stiuth° f " an< ^ f a ^ e ^ood ; or by a peculiar power of perception, which 

 is pleafed with one fet of qualities, and difpleafed with another ? 

 Secondly, What is the proper object of moral approbation ; or, 

 in other words, what is the common quality or qualities belong- 

 ing to all the different modes of virtue ? Is it benevolence ; or 

 a rational felf-love ; or a difpofition to act fuitably to the dif- 

 ferent relations in which we are placed ? Thefe two queftions 

 feem to exhaufl the whole theory of morals. The fcope of the 

 one is to afcertain the origin of our moral ideas ; that of the 

 other, to refer the phenomena of moral perception to their mod 

 fimple and general laws. 



The practical doctrines of morality comprehend all thofe 

 rules of conduct which profefs to point out the proper ends 

 of human purfuit, and the mod effectual means of attain- 

 ing them ; to which we may add all thofe literary compofi- 

 tions, whatever be their particular form, which have for their 

 aim to fortify and animate our good difpofitions, by delineations 

 of the beauty, of the dignity, or of the utility of Virtue. 



I shall not enquire at prefent into the juftnefs of this divi- 

 fion. I fhall only obferve, that the words Theory and Practice 

 are not, in this inftance, employed in their ufual acceptations. 

 The theory of morals does not bear, for example, the fame re- 

 lation to the practice of morals, that the theory of geometry 

 bears to practical geometry. In this laft fcience, all the practi- 

 cal rules are founded on theoretical principles previoufly efta- 

 blifhed : But in the former fcience, the practical rules are obvi- 

 ous to the capacities of all mankind ; the theoretical princi- 

 ples form one of the mod difficult fubjects of difcuffion that 

 have ever exercifed the ingenuity of metaphyficians. 



In illuflrating the doctrines of practical morality, (if we 

 make allowance for fome unfortunate prejudices produced or 

 encouraged by violent and oppreflive fyftems of policy), the an- 

 cients feem to have availed themfelves of every light furnifhed 

 by nature to human reafon ; and indeed thofe writers who, in 



later 



