396 



ON HUMAN HAPPINESS. 



It was from the elegant and ornate moralists of the East, that the philoso- 

 phers of this school derived this figurative synonyme; from Arahia, Egypt, 

 and India; in all which quarters we find it still more frequent and familiar. 

 Solomon, whose early studies were derived from an Arabic source, is pecu- 

 liarly addicted to this use of these terms. The very commencement of his 

 book of Proverbs, or system of ethics, as the schools would denominate it, 

 affords us a striking instance:— 



"The fear of Jehovah is thebejiinniii;; of knowledge: 

 For FOOLS despise wisdom and insu uctio;!." 



So Vishnusarman in his Hitopadesa, to the same precise effect : " Many 

 who read the Scriptures are grossly ignorant ; but he who acts well is a truly 

 LEARNED man."* 



Whatever view, therefore, we take of this subject, in whatever way we 

 exercise our reason upon it, we cannot fail to approve of virtue in preference 

 to vice ; for we cannot fail to regard virtue as the only sure road to happiness, 

 and, consequently, as the path of wisdom, or the will of God. The case, 

 indeed, is so clear, that it is seldom mankind in any part of the world are 

 now-a-days at the trouble of debating the subject. There is no controversy 

 — the result is taken for granted. And hence wherever education exists, or, 

 in other words, wherever civilized life extends, we are chiefly taught it, not 

 as a science, but as a rule of action ; we imbibe it as a habit ; and our first 

 and finest feelings co-operate with our best reason in its favour. We form 

 an abstract picture of it in our minds, and delineate it, under the correct and 

 pleasing image of the fair, the needful, the sovereign good. We have already 

 seen that, in proportion as society is ignorant, men are wicked ; in proportion 

 as it becomes wis-e, they grow virtuous. They acquire clearer ideas of right 

 and wrong, which are obviously nothing more than virtue and vice, under an 

 additional set of names, or in a state of activity. And were the rules and 

 laws of right, virtue, or wisdom to be constantly adhered to, or, in other 

 words, the will of the Deity to be fully complied with, there can be no ques- 

 tion that mankind, even in the present state, would enjoy all the happiness 

 their nature would allow of; and that a kind of paradise would once more 

 visit the earth. 



And why, then, is not the will of the Deity fully complied with 1 Why, 

 since the consequence is so undoubted, and so beneficial, are not the rules of 

 virtue constantly and universally adhered to 1 



This is a most important question, as well in itself as in its results. 



The will of the Deity, or the entire rules of virtue, are not always adhered 

 to, first, because, as collected from reason or the light of nature alone, they 

 are not, through the whole range of this complicated subject, in all instances 

 equally clear and perspicuous ; and, secondly, because, in a thousand instances 

 in which there is no want of clearness or perspicuity, there is a want of 

 sanction — of a compulsory and adequate force. The rules of virtue are 

 general, and must necessarily be general; but the cases to which they apply 

 are particular. The case is present and often impulsive, but the operation 

 of the rule is remote, and it may not operate at all ; and hence the pleasure 

 of immediate gratification is perpetually unhinging this harmonious system, 

 and plunging mankind into vice with tlieir eyes open. 



But civil laws, moreover, or the authority of the social compact in favour 

 of virtue, are not only often inadequate in their force, but they must necessa- 

 rily, in a thousand instances, be inadequate in their extent. It is impossible 

 for man, of himself, to provide against every case of vice or criminality that 

 may offend the public ; for the keenest casuist can form no idea of many of 



Possit, qnive sciet poenarum dsniqiie finis ; 



Alque eadeni metiiit mauis, lia?c ne in niorte gravescant. 



Hinc Acherusiafit stultorum denique vita. 



Lib. iii. 1030. 



*SirW. Jones, vL p. 37. 



