The Elements of Moral Science (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. VIRTUE. SECTION I. IN GENERAL. Virtue, or moral rectitude, is conformity to moral obligation. Some persons restrict the use of the term to such actions as are beneficial to men, and distinguish it from piety or duty to God; but the use of it for all duty, both to God and men, has the authority of good writers. Nor does its signification include external acts only; for we speak of virtuous affections, as well as virtuous actions. Our moral obligations are founded on the authority of God, the moral governor of the universe; and hence, his commandment or expressed will is the rule of obligation. Aifections and actions are virtuous, which conform to the will of God. He commands that we should love God with all the heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. This law is the proper standard of virtuous affections; and such actions are virtuous as flow from these affections. Love cannot be exercised toward an object of which we have no knowledge. The virtuous mind enlarges the sphere of its affections, as its knowledge increases. The relations which we bear to our neighbors are various; and the virtuous affection prompts to various courses of action, corresponding to these several relations. In the progress of life, our relations multiply; and the field for virtuous action accordingly enlarges. As knowledge extends to beings before unknown, the heart finds new objects to love; and, as new relations are discovered, the expanding love prompts to new methods of doing good. Hence, our progress in virtue is as illimitable as our progress in knowledge. We have before seen that the moral faculty is capable of indefinite improvement; and we have now discovered that the scope for virtue is perpetually enlarging, with the increase of knowledge, and the multiplication of our...