action with a known law, either of manners or of the country, - a faculty, which must have only a partial operation; because, whilst it may witness as far as the law is known, yet when the law is not established, it cannot point out the moral obligation to a particular mode of action, nor mark the critical and important step which leads indulgence into guilt. Cicero taught, that piety, or duty to the gods, was the principle of morals. But did Cicero either fear the wrath of Jupiter for incontinence, or of Bacchus for ebriety? Again, Seneca spoke of natural virtue, and said, that all men see it. What was the natural virtue of Greece and Rome? May we not say of their morals, what Syphax is made to say of Roman honour? "Your Scipios, Cæsars, Pompeys, and your Catos, (The gods on earth) are all the spurious blood Of violated maids, of ravished Sabines." The only foundation for a moral law among the heathens, was the civil law, and the law of manners*; and, if they could escape the publicity of a violation of these laws, they had but little else to restrain their appetites and passions. Even the most learned of the people, instead of restraining their appetites, subduing their passions, and regulating their affections, pampered them with indulgence, and refined upon volup * Vide the Book of the Church, c.ii. p. 11, 12. tuousness. Socrates himself, wise enough to despise the gratifications of sense, was yet too wise to mortify his senses, by sacrificing his pleasures to a verbal system. The stoic was also as selfish as the epicurean; and the sophist who confuted, as well as the satirist who ridiculed all theories, drank as deep of sensual pleasures, as inclination, opportunity, and constitution would suffer. In vain also do we turn from these men to their immortal writings, to find a satisfactory exposition of their principles of moral life, -for the principle, as well as the action, was the constant subject of dispute. Voluptuaries in intellect, as well as in sense, and disputing for victory, rather than truth, they "lost themselves in the abstruseness and obscurity of metaphysics." With a few, there might have been a mental conflict betwixt the desire of a secure gratification and the sentimental feeling of personal purity, or the indistinct conception of moral truth, as it assumed the form of conscience, or piety, or natural virtue; but such instances must necessarily have been rare, and would only occur with minds habitually reflective. Mankind in general are unconscious of the mental process which determines their actions; and, unless when seeking to indulge some ruling passion, are apparently driven about in the current of human affairs, without motive and without design. In deed, to determine the moral of many actions, would have been to the ancients a question of nice and subtle difficulty, if not altogether above their decision; for whilst the moral of some of the common occurrences in life seem to be felt as if by intuition, and acted upon as if by instinct; others involve such pure acts of ratiocination, as to be far above the general powers of mankind to determine. Situation and circumstances in life, have also an evident and, indeed, an overwhelming effect upon (that which is called) the moral sense; creating or destroying it, according as the bearing of society is to barbarism or benevolence. The mind that is abased with slavery, and depressed with poverty, opens not to all the feelings which arise amid ease and abundance in the atmosphere of liberty. The barbarians, who live upon plunder, and sleep with their weapons in their hands, know not the kindlier feelings, which so often enrich and adorn the actions of those, who live in security and affluence. Sometimes, indeed, to a certain extent, the savage will cultivate the great and leading feelings of moral virtue. In some societies he will be regulated by a seeming sense of honour and humanity, as far as it regards his own immediate associates; but in the hour of business, or of pleasure, or of danger, or of war, either under suspicion or excitation, he throws F |