1

tle that might remain of his own life, began im"mediately to inquire of the officers who feized him, "whether his fon was well, whether he had done "his duty to the fatisfaction of his generals. That fon, replied one of his officers, fo dear to thy affec"tions, betrayed thee to us; by his information "thou art apprehended, and dieft. The officer "with this ftruck a poniard to his heart, and the unhappy parent fell, not fo much affected by his "fate, as by the means to which he owed it."*

Now the question is, whether, if this ftory were related to the wild boy, caught fome years ago in the woods of Hanover, or to a favage, without experience and without inftruction, cut off in his infancy from all intercourfe with his fpecies, and, confequently, under no poffible influence of example, authority, education, fympathy, or habit; whether, I fay, fuch a one would feel, upon the relation, any degree of that fentiment of difapprobation of Toranius's conduct which we feel, or not.

They who maintain the exiftence of a moral fenfe -of innate maxims-of a natural confcience-that the love of virtue and hatred of vice are inftinctiveor the perception of right and wrong intuitive, (all which are only different ways of expreffing the fame opinion) affirm that he would.

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

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And upon this iffue is joined.

"Caius Toranius triumvirum partes fecutus, profcripti pa"tris fui prætorii et ornati viri latebras, ætatem, notafque corporis, quibus agnofci poffet, centurionibus edidit, qui eum perfe"cuti funt. Senex de filii magis vitâ, et incrementis, quam de reliquo fpiritu fuo follicitus; an incolumis effet, et an impera"toribus fatisfaceret, interrogare eos coepit. Equibus unus: "ab illo, inquit, quem tantopere diligis, demonftratus, noftro minifterio, filii indicio occideris: protinufque pectus ejus gladio trajecit. Collapfus itaque eft infelix, auctore cœædis, quam ipfà cæde, miferior.?? VALER. MAX. Lib. IX. Cap. 11.

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As

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 reafons.

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, oft-times without being confcious 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 difapproved in all ages and countries of the worldcircumftances, fay they, which ftrongly indicate the operation of an inftinct or moral fenfe.

On the other hand, anfwers have been given to moft of these arguments, by the patrons of the oppofite fyftem: and,

First, as to the uniformity above alleged, they 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 fuftain 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 cenfures of all civilized nations, is practifed by the favages of the tropical regions without referve, compunction, or disgrace; that crimes, of which it is no longer permitted us even to fpeak, 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

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 prefent improved ftate of moral knowledge, we are far from a perfect confent in our opinions or feelings that you shall hear duelling alternately reprobated and applauded, according to the fex, age, or ftation of the perfon you converfe with; that the forgiveness of injuries and infults is accounted by one fort of people magnanimity, by another meannefs: that in the above inftances, and perhaps in moft others, moral approbation follows the fashions and inftitutions of the country we live. in; which fashions alfo and inftitutions 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 fteady hand and indelible characters of nature. But, Secondly, becaufe, 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:

a

Having experienced, in fome inftance, particular conduct to be beneficial to ourselves, "or obferved that it would be fo, a fentiment of ap"probation rifes up in our minds, which fentiment "afterwards accompanies the idea or mention of the "fame conduct, although the private advantage " which firft ex cited it no longer exift."

And this continuance of the paffion, after the reafon of it has ceased, is nothing more, fay they, than what happens in other cafes; efpecially in the love of money, which is in no perfon fo eager, as it is oftenC

times

times 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 ufe 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 cuftom 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 approving 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 caufes, by which it univerfally comes to pafs, 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 prefent; and is the cause alfo, that the process of affociation, defcribed in the laft paragraph but one, is little now either perceived or wanted.

દર

"From inftances of popular tumults, feditions, factions, panics, and of all paffions, which are shared with a multitude, we may learn the influence of fociety, in exciting and fupporting any emotion; while the moft ungovernable diforders are railed, we find, by that means, from the flightest and most "frivolous occafions. He must be more or less than man, who kindles not in the common blaze. What wonder then, that moral fentiments are found of fuch influence in life, though fpringing from principles, which may appear, at first fight, fomewhat fall and delicate ?"

Hume's Enquiry concerning the Principles of Merals.

Sect. IX. p. 326.

Amongst

Amongst the caufes affigned for the continuance and diffufion of the fame moral fentiments amongst mankind we have mentioned imitation. The efficacy of this principle is moft obfervable in children; indeed, if there be any thing in them, which deferves the name of an inftinct, it is their propenfity to imitation. Now there is nothing which children imitate or apply more readily than expreffions of affection and averfion, of approbation, hatred, refentment, and the like; and when these paffions and expreffions are once connected, which they foon will be by the fame affociation which unites words with their ideas, the paffion will follow the expreffion, and attach upon the object to which the child has been accustomed to apply the epithet. In a word, when almoft every thing elfe is learned by imitation, can we wonder to find the fame caufe concerned in the generation of our moral fentiments?

Another confiderable objection to the fyftem of moral instincts is this, that there are no maxims in the fcience, which can well be deemed innate, as none perhaps can be affigned, which are abfolutely and univerfally true; in other words, which do not bend to circumftances. Veracity, which feems, if any be, a natural duty, is excufed in many cafes towards an enemy, a thief, or a madman. The obligation of promifes, which is a firft principle in morality, depends upon the circumftances under which they were made: they may have been unlawful, or become fo fince, or inconfiftent with former promises, or erroneous, or extorted; under all which cafes, inftances may be suggested, where the obligation to perform the promife would be very dubious, and fo of most other general rules, when they come to be actually applied.

An argument has been alfo propofed on the fame fide of the queftion of this kind. Together with the inftinct, there muft have been inplanted, it is faid, a clear and precife idea of the object upon which it was to attach. The inftinct and the idea of the ob