For whether any thing be fit to be done, it is as he says, “reason alone which must judge; as the eye is the sole judge of what is visible, the ear of what is audible, so reason of what is reasonable.”
Every thing therefore that is done, every thing that is chosen in human life before any thing else, is as strictly chosen by reason, as every thing that is seen, is seen by the eye; and every thing that is heard, is heard by the ear.
To suppose that reason permits itself to be governed by passions or tempers, but is not the _immediate agent_ of all that is done by them, is as absurd, as to suppose that reason permits itself to be governed by the _hand_ when it is writing falsly, or the _tongue_, when it is talking profanely, but it is not the immediate, direct agent of all that is written and spoken by them.
* _Brutes_ are incapable of immorality, because none of their actions are the actions of _reason_: every thing therefore that is immorality, baseness, or villainy in us, must be the act of our reason, otherwise it could no more be immoral, than the actions of brutes.
* If therefore, as this author often saith, reason be the only faculty that distinguisheth us from brutes; it necessarily follows, that those irregularities, whether of humour, passions, or tempers, which cannot be imputed to brutes, must be solely attributed to that faculty by which we are distinguished from brutes; and consequently, every thing that is foolish, vain, shameful, false, treacherous, and base, must be the acts of our reason; since if they were the acts of any thing else, they could have no more vanity, falseness, or baseness, than hunger and thirst.
It is not my intent to condemn our common language, which talks of reason and the passions, as if they were as different as a _governor_ and his _subjects_.
These forms of speech are very intelligible and useful, and give great life and ornament to all discourses upon morality.
But when persons ascribe to reason, as a _distinct faculty_ of human nature, I know not what _absolute perfection_, making it as immutable, and incapable of any addition or improvement, as God himself: it is necessary to consider reason, not as it is represented in common language, but as it is in reality in itself.
Notwithstanding therefore in common language, our passions, and the effects of them, are usefully distinguished from our reason, I have here ventured to shew, that all the disorders of human nature, are in effect the disorders of human reason, and that all the perfection or imperfection of our passions is the perfection or imperfection of our reason.
Our follies and absurdities of every kind are as necessarily to be ascribed to our reason, as the _first immediate_ cause of them, as our wisdom and discretion are to be ascribed to it in that degree.
The difference between reason assenting to the properties of a _square_, and reason acting in motions of desire or aversion, is only this, that in the latter case, it is reason acting under a sense of its own good or evil, in the former case, it is reason acting under a sense of _magnitude_.
And as the relations of magnitude, as they are the objects of our reason, are only the objects of its assent or dissent; so good and evil, as they are objects of our reason, are only the objects of its _desire_ or _aversion_: and as the assent or dissent, in matters of speculation, whether right or wrong, is solely the act of our reason; so desire or aversion, in human life, whether right or wrong, is equally the act of our reason.
We often say, that our passions deceive us, or persuade us; but this is no more strictly so, than when we say, our _interest_ deceived, or a bribe blinded us. For bribes and interest are not active principles, nor have any power of deception; it is only our reason that gives them a false value, and prefers them to a greater good.
It is just so in what we call the deceit of our passions: they meddle with us no more than bribes meddle with us; but that pleasurable perception, which is to be found in certain enjoyments, is by our reason preferred to that better good, which we might expect from self-denial.
We say again, that our passions paint things in false colours, and present to our minds vain appearances of happiness.
But this is no more strictly true, than when we say, ♦our _imagination_ forms castles in the air. For the imagination signifies no distinct faculty from our reason, but only reason acting upon our _own ideas_.
♦ “out” replaced with “our”
So when our passions are said to give false colours to things, or present vain appearances of happiness, it is only our reason acting upon its own ideas of _good_ and _evil_, just as it acts upon its own ideas of _architecture_, in forming castles in the air.