habits, and fubdues and extirpates thofe of vice. Its office is, however, as difficult as it is honourable; and has been more fuperficially attempted, than successfully performed. Thus Moral Virtue is a compound of two ingredients-Right Reafon and Well-directed Appetite, which mix and incorporate together :" and when Ethical Truth is, by a virtuous determination of the Will, reduced to its just and proper Action; when it is employed to regulate the practice, to form the habits, to influence the morals, and to purify the lives, of men, it flows in all the channels of Love to God and Good-will towards each other, and fhines out in all the living portraits of active virtue, conftituting that n n * Εςι δ ̓ ὅπερ ἐν διανοίᾳ κατάφασις καὶ ἀπόφασις, τοῦτ' ἐν ὀρέξει διωξις καὶ φυγή, ὥς ̓ ἐπειδὴ ἡ ἠθικὴ ἀρετὴ, ἕξις προαιρετική, ἡ δὲ προαίρεσις, ὄρεξις βελευτική, δεῖ διὰ ταῦτα, τόν τε λόγον ἀληθῆ εἶναι, καὶ τὴν ὄρεξιν ὀρθὴν, εἴ περ ἡ προαίρεσις σπεδαία· καὶ τὰ αὐτὰ, τὸν μὲν φάναι, τὴν δὲ διώκειν. αὕτη μὲν ἂν ἡ διάνοια καὶ ἡ αλήθεια πρακτική, Ariftot. Eth. Nicom. lib. vi. cap. 2. ༢ EL illuftrious illuftrious branch of WISDOM, which has been distinguished by the name of CHA RITY. Having endeavoured, by these preliminary obfervations, to ascertain and define the proper boundaries of this branch of learning, which is of vaft extent and comprehenfion, and which has been treated in general in a defultory and promifcuous way, by poets and orators, by moralifts and divines, we fhall descend with the greater precision to what is properly the Logic of ETHICS. • See the 4th page of this volume. SECT. SECT. I. Of the Ethical PRINCIPLE. T HAT native and original Evidence, which is the FIRST PRINCIPLE of all morality, is an inftinct of our common nature, implanted in the human breast by the hand that formed it, interwoven in the very stamina of our conftitution, and given, as all instincts are, to direct us to our good. This is another firft and univerfal inlet of knowledge to the mind; and philofophers have very properly given it the name of INTERNAL or MORAL SENSE in contradiftinction to Internal Senfe, the other great and univerfal inlet of natural light; which P Notandum tamen lumen naturæ duplici fignificatione accipi. Primo quatenus oritur ex fenfu, inductione, ratione, argumentis, fecundum leges coeli ac terræ: Secundo, quatenus animæ humanæ interno effulget instinētu, fecundum legem confcientia; quæ fcintilla quædam eft, et tanquam different Evidences or First Principles of knowledge, in their feveral operations upon things, form, indeed, the clearest and most philofophical diftinction between Theoretical and Practical truth. This Evidence of Internal Senfe is the dictate of Confcience Conflictes, which reigns predominant in cervica the human breast, as a remaining spark of its native light, and as an indelible witness of that confummate purity and perfection, in which it was originally defigned. This native and internal Senfe is the immediate and involuntary criterion of a few general truths, which, in their joint operation upon the mind, lay the foundation of Moral Obligation, which is the fource and fpring of Moral Action. One truth discovered by this Internal Senfe, is an effential Difference in the quality of all moral thoughts and actions, tanquam reliquiæ priftinæ et primitivæ puritatis. In quo and and a general diftinction of them into Good and EVIL. And, in doing this, it is perfectly analogous to the External Senses; for the difcovery is made by the fame immediate and intuitive difcernment, by which they distinguish their refpective objects: which analogy is strongly and pointedly expreffed in the language of holy writ. As the carnal eye distinguishes "darkness from light, and light from darkness," and the taste "bit"ter from fweet, and sweet from bitter;" fo does this mental eye distinguish "" evil from 66 good, and good from evil," by a native faculty as inherent and familiar, as thofe of feeing colours, hearing founds, and diftinguishing tastes are to their proper and refpective organs. By the fame instinctive impulse of its own, the mind is informed of another univerfal truth, the Existence of the WILL, that fublime and distinguishing prerogative of men, by which they are enabled to choose the good, and to avoid the evil. Long and subtle are the difquifitions which have fpun by the refinement of modern metaphysicians on that favourite |