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of expreffing the fame opinion) affirm that he would.

They who deny the existence of a moral sense, &c. affirm that he would not.

And upon this iffue is joined.

As the experiment has never been made; and from the difficulty of procuring a fubject (not to mention the impoffibility of propofing the queftion to him, if we had one) is never likely to be made, what would be the event, can only be judged of from probable reasons.

Those who contend for the affirmative obferve, that we approve examples of generofity, gratitude, fidelity, &c. and condemn the contrary, inftantly, without deliberation, without having any intereft of our own concerned in them, ofttimes without being conscious of, or able to give, any reafon for our approbation : that this approbation is uniform and univerfal; the fame forts of conduct being approved or disapproved in all ages and countries of the world-circumstances, fay they, which ftrongly indicate the operation of an instinct or moral fenfe.

On the other hand, answers have been given to most of these arguments, by the patrons of the opposite system: and,

Firft, as to the uniformity above alledged, they

con

controvert the fact. They remark, from authentic accounts of hiftorians and travellers, that there is fcarcely a fingle vice, which in fome age or country of the world, has not been countenanced by public opinion: that in one country it is esteemed an office of piety in children to sustain' their aged parents, in another to dispatch them out of the way; that fuicide in one age of the world has been heroifm, is in another felony; that theft, which is punished by moft laws, by the laws of Sparta was not unfrequently rewarded; that the promifcuous commerce of the fexes, although condemned by the regulations and cenfure of all civilized nations, is practifed by the favages of the tropical regions without reserve, compunction, or difgrace; that crimes, of which it is no longer permitted us even to speak, have had their advocates amongst the fages of very renowned times; that, if an inhabitant of the polished nations of Europe is delighted with the appearance, wherever he meets with it, of happinefs, tranquillity, and comfort, a wild American is no lefs diverted with the writhings and contortions of a victim at the ftake; that even amongst ourselves, and in the present improved ftate of moral knowledge, we are far from a perfect confent in our opinions or feelings;

that

that you shall hear duelling alternately reprobated and applauded, according to the fex, age, or station of the perfon you converse with; that the forgiveness of injuries and infults is accounted by one fort of people magnanimity, by another meanness that in the above inftances, and perhaps in most others, moral approbation follows the fashions and inftitutions of the country we live in; which fashions alfo and institutions themselves have grown out of the exigencies, the .. climate, fituation, or local circumftances of the country; or have been fet up by the authority of an arbitrary chieftain, or the unaccountable caprice of the multitude-all which, they obferve, looks very little like the steady hand and indelible characters of nature. But,

Secondly, because, after these exceptions and abatements, it cannot be denied, but that fome forts of actions command and receive the esteem of mankind more than others; and that the approbation of them is general, though not univerfal: as to this they fay, that the general approbation of virtue, even in inftances where we have no intereft of our own to induce us to it, may be accounted for, without the affiftance of a moral fenfe, thus:

"Having experienced, in fome inftance, a

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"particular conduct to be beneficial to ourselves,

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or obferved that it would be fo, a fentiment "of approbation rifes up in our minds, which "fentiment afterwards accompanies the idea or " mention of the fame conduct, although the private advantage which firft excited it no "longer exist."

And this continuance of the paffion, after the reafon of it has ceafed, is nothing more, fay they, than what happens in other cafes; especially in the love of money, which is in no perfon fo eager, as it is oftentimes found to be in a rich old mifer, without family to provide for, or friend to oblige by it, and to whom confequently it is no longer (and he may be fenfible of it too) of any real use or value: yet is this man as much overjoyed with gain, and mortified by loffes, as he was the first day he opened his fhop, and when his very fubfiftence depended upon his fuccefs in it.

By these means the cuftom of approving certain actions commenced; and when once fuch a custom hath got footing in the world, it is no difficult thing to explain how it is tranfmitted and continued; for then the greatest part of those who approve of virtue, approve of it from authority, by imitation, and from a habit of ap

proving

proving fuch and fuch actions, inculcated in early youth, and receiving, as men grow up, continual acceffions of ftrength and vigour, from cenfure and encouragement, from the books they read, the converfations they hear, the current application of epithets, the general turn of language, and the various other causes, by which it univerfally comes to pass, that a fociety of men, touched in the feebleft degree with the fame paffion, foon communicate to one another a great degree of it.* This is the cafe with most of us at present; and is the cause also, that the procefs of affociation, described in the last paragraph but one, is little now either perceived or wanted.

Amongst the causes affigned for the continuance and diffufion of the fame moral fentiments

*«From inftances of popular tumults, feditions, factions, "panics, and of all paffions, which are shared with a multi❝tude, we may learn the influence of society, in exciting " and supporting any emotion; while the most ungovernable "diforders are raised, we find, by that means, from the "flightest and most frivolous occafions.-He must be more or «lefs than man, who kindles not in the common blaze. "What wonder then, that moral fentiments are found of "fuch influence in life, though springing from principles, "which may appear, at firft fight, fomewhat fmall and de«licate?"

Hume's Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals,

Sect. 1X. p. 326.

amongst

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