there are traces in animals who do not appear to reflect on the state of their own minds, and who seem, there- fore, destitute of what he elsewhere calls a mural sense. These statements are, it is true, far too short and vague. He nowiiere inquires into the origin of the retlex sense. What is a much more material defect, he makes no attempt to ascertain in what state of mind it consists. AVe discover only by implication, and by the use of the term sense, that he searches for the fountain of moral sentiments, not in mere reason, where Cudworth and Clarke had vainly sought for it, but in the heart, whence the main branch of them as- suredly flows. It should never be forgotten that we owe to these hints the reception into ethical theory of a moral sense, which, whatever may be thought of its origin, or in whatever words it may be described, must always retain its place in such theory as a main principle of our moral nature. His demonstration of the utility of virtue to the individual far surpasses all attempts of the same nature, being founded, not on a calculation of outward advantages or inconveniences, alike uncertain, precarious, and degrading, but on the unshaken foundation of the delight, which is of the very essence of social afiection and virtuous sentiment ; on the dreadful agony inflicted by all malevolent passions upon eveiy soul that harbors the hellish inmates ; on the all-important truth that to love is to be happy, and to hate is to be miseralde ; that affection is its own reward, and ill-will its own punishment ; or, as it has been more simply and more affectingly, as well as with more sacred authority, taught, tiiat to give is more blessed than to receive, and that to love one an- other is the sum of all human virtue" (JIackiiitosh, lliitorij of Ethical Philosophy, p. 95).
Bishop Butler (f 1752) sets forth his moral doctrine in his Sermons (often reprinted), which have been re- cently published as a text-book liy the Rev. J. C. Passmore, under the title Bishop Butler's Ethiccd Dis- courses (Pliiladelphia, 1855, 12mo). lie is undoubt- edly the greatest of modern English writers on the true nature of ethics. "Mankind," he says, "have various principles of action, some leading directly to the private good, some immediately to the good of the community. But the private desires are not self-love, or an}' form of it ; for self-love is the desire of a man's own happiness, whereas the object of an appetite or passion is some outward thing. Self- love seeks things as means of liappiness ; the private appetites seek things, not as means, but as ends. A man eats from hunger, and drinks from thirst ; and though he knows that these acts are necessary to life, that knowledge is not the motive of his conduct. No ! gratification can indeed be imagined without a pre- vious desire. If all the particular desires did not ex- ist independently, self-love would have no object to employ itself about, for there would be no happiness, which, by the very supposition of tlie opponents, is made np of the gratification of various desires. No pursuit could be selfish or interested if there were not satisfactions first gained liy appetites which seek their own outward objects without regard to self, which satisfactions compose the mass which is called a man's interest. In contending, therefore, that the benevo- lent affections are disinterested, no more is claimed for thom than must be granted to mere animal appetites and to malevolent passions. E ich of these principles alike seeks its own ol)ject for the sake simply of obtain- ing it. Pleasure is tiie result of the attainment, but no separate part of the aim of the agent. The desire that another person may be gratified seeks that out- ward object alone, according to the general course of human desire. Pesentment is as disinterested as grat- itude or pity, but not more so. Hunger or thirst may l)e, as much as the purest benevolence, at variance with self-love. A regard to our own general happi- ness is not a vice, but in itself an excellent quality. It were well if it prevailed more generally over crav-
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