MANUAL OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. PART FIRST. "I study Virtue; and that part of philosophy By virtue specially to be achieved."-SHAKESPEARE. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. OF HUMAN ACTIONS. MORAL PHILOSOPHY proposes to direct and regulate human actions as Right or Wrong. ACTION is opposed to PASSION; but both imply power,-power to originate or produce change, or power to receive or undergo change. Passive virtue and Active power are both recognized. The exercise of any power or faculty may be called an Act or Action. Acts are distinguished as Elicit or Imperate, Immanent or Transitive, according as they are confined to, or extend beyond, the faculty or agent. In common speech, we distinguish between thought, word, and deed. But to think is an act, and to speak is an act, as well as to do anything that may be in our power. The word Action is to be understood negatively as well as positively. There are acts of omission as well as of commission. (Reid, Act. Pow., Ess. V. ch. 1.) Act is individual. Action is collective, and may of action. Act applies chiefly to thought or mind. is external. refer to a course Action to what MOR. PH. B By a human action is meant an action done by an agent in the full possession and exercise of Intelligence and Will; these being the faculties proper to man as a reasonable being. Actions have a nature and consequences. Reason enables us to discern the nature and consequences of actions; Will enables us to design or determine actions, with a view to their nature and consequences so that, when we act intentionally, we have an end in view, to which the action is the means. To intend is to believe that a given act will follow a given volition. Austin's Jurisprudence. An End is that for the sake of which an action is done. Hence it has been said to be, principium in intentione et terminus in executione. When one end has been gained, it may be the means of gaining some other end. Hence it is that ends have been distinguished, as Supreme and Ultimate, or Subordinate and Intermediate. That which is sought for its own sake, is the Supreme and Ultimate end of those actions which are done with a view to it. That which is sought for the sake of some other end, is a Subordinate and Intermediate end. Ends as Ultimate, are distinguished into the end which is Ultimate Simpliciter, and ends which are Ultimate Secundum quid. An end which is the last that is successively aimed at, in a series of actions, is called Ultimate secundum quid. But that which is aimed at, exclusively for its own sake, and is never regarded as a means to any other end, is an Ultimate end, simply and absolutely. There are laws or rules, according to which actions answer their ends; just as there are laws or rules, according to which the events and phenomena of nature take place. The laws of nature are generalized assertions, or inferences from experience, which register the amount of knowledge to which we have attained, but which have no influence over the elements and their changes. The laws of human action are derived from the nature and will of God, and the character and condition of man, and may be understood and adopted by man, as a being endowed with intelligence and will, to be the rules by which to regulate his actions. The laws of nature are assertions only; as, Mars revolves in an ellipse; the laws of human action are commands. These imperative laws we call Rules. (Whewell, Elements of Morality, Introd. p. 7.) To understand such rules and to follow them-to discern the nature and consequences of actions-to act with deliberation and forethought, and to consider their actions as means to an end-these are the characteristics of rational and responsible agents. Brutes understand not the connection between means and ends, and are prompted to act by mere impulse. But man sees and understands the connection between means and ends, and can deliberately adopt and follow out the rules, according to which the end aimed at may be attained, by the appropriate means. It is when he does so, that his actions are regarded as human or moral actions. Human actions are characterized as Right or Wrong. These words have reference to a law or rule. Where there is no law, there can be neither obedience nor transgression, neither Rightness nor Wrongness. Moral laws or rules enjoin certain actions to be done, in order to certain ends; as, Be temperate, in order to preserve health. And an action is said to be right when it is conformable to the law or rule; as, To be temperate, is the right way to preserve health. In this case, the adjective right is used relatively, that is, relatively to the end of the action and the rule for gaining it. But the end of one action, or course of action, when gained, may be the means of carrying out another action, or course of action, and thus of gaining some higher end. In such cases, the inferior ends derive their value from the higher ends, to which they are made the means. And the rules which prescribe the actions to be done, as means to these ends, derive their force, each from the rule above it. "The succession of means and ends, with the corresponding series of subordinate and superior rules, must somewhere terminate. And the inferior ends would have no value, as leading to the highest, except the highest had a value of its own. The superior rules could give no validity to the subordinate ones, except there was a supreme rule, from which the validity of all these was ultimately derived. Therefore, there is a supreme rule of human actions."Whewell, Elements of Mor., book i. ch. 4, sect. 72. Arist., Eth., lib. i. chap. 2. That which is conformable to the supreme rule is absolutely right, and is called right, simply, without relation to a special end or rule. The contrary of right is wrong. Rightness and Wrongness are the characteristics of moral action. Such actions as are neither conformable nor contrary to any moral law or rule have been called Indifferent actions. The act of |