The moral system, with an historical and critical introduction. Having special reference to Bp. Butler's "Analogy." Designed as a text book, for academies and colleges

Front matter

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Preface

My object in this work is to present a comprehensive hut concise view of the Moral System. We have treatises in abundance on the order and laws of the different departments of the material system, nor have mental and moral philosophy failed to receive that degree and amount of attention which have resulted in the preparation of numerous and able textbooks. But the order and laws of the providential government of the world, although of paramount and personal interest, have rarely been discussed, except in connection with revealed dogmas, and there are few works which ever pretend to set forth any thorough and connected view of what has been termed the moral Jtosmos. The best known and most able in English literature, is undoubtedly Bp. Butler's "Analogy of Religion, Natural, and Revealed," and this has been extensively used as a text-book in the higher schools and colleges ; but the very title indicates that his object was not to present anything like a complete or connected scheme of the moral constitution of the world, but only such features of it as were exposed to the same criticisms as the scheme set forth in the Christian Scriptures. On other grounds, also, which will be manifest as we proceed, his work is unsuited not only to the wants of students in a course of education, but to the prevalent type of modern thought, which finds the gravest difiiculties where Butler found none, and often refuses to admit without proof what he was content to assume.

My own experience of the use of Butler as a text-book, in the university with wliich I am connected, has compelled me so far to modify his arrangement, and supplement or qualify his arguments — especially with a view to interest and instruct classes of young men, many of whom are repelled rather than attracted by Butler's style and method — that in my instructions I have really substituted for Butler lectures of my own, retaining what was essential in his thought, and remolding it, in connection with new matter, so as to constitute the present volume. The advantages of the method which I have pursued have been obvious in several respects. A class of minds has been reached and interested — such as are to be found in every large institution — who would have regarded the study

4 PEEFACE.

of the text of Butler with repugnance, but who have thus been attracted to a more systematic and comprehensive sui-vey of the Moral System, with its constitution and laws, as an organic whole.

Indeed, grave objections, and by no means groundless, have been taken to the "Analog;^" as a text-book, some of which will be noted in the Introduction to this work. But it is enough to say it is unwise to thrust upon the attention of students, in a repulsive form, such truths as Butler presents. Yastly important, they should not be divested of their attractiveness to thoughtful minds by the language or method in which they are set forth. Tet Sir James Mackintosh has remarked of Butler, " !N"o thinker so great was ever so bad a writer. . . . How general must the reception have been of truths so certain and momentous as those contained in Butler's discourses — with how much more clearness must they have appeared to his own great understanding, if he had possessed the strength and distinctness with which Hobbes enforces odious falsehood, or the unspeakable charm of that transparent diction which clothed the unfruitful paradoxes of Berkeley ! "

It is manifest to any one who has paid attention to the subject, that a liberal education should be, as fiir as possible, symmetrical and comprehensive, as well as thorough, within the limits necessarily assigned. No important department of knowledge should be altogether overlooked. Yet there has of late been a strong tendency to allow physical science to encroach upon the sphere of moral, even while under the broad and proper sense of natural^ the physical and moral are both included. The study of the laws of mind is, to say the least, as important as the study of the laws of matter, and the distinction between right and wrong is as real, though impalpable to sense, as any that is drawn by the mathematician or chemist. It is paying but an equivocal compliment to any scheme of education to say that it unfolds to the student the operation of such laws as those of gravitation or chemical affinities, but is silent as to the constitution of his own moral being, and the relation Vv^hich it sustains to the moral order of the world.

l^iebuhr has remarked in his lectures (I. 146), that " as the consideration of nature shows an inherent Intelligence, which may also be conceived as coherent with nature, so does history, on a hundred occasions, show an intelligence which is distinct from nature, which conducts and determines those things which may seem to us accidental ; and it is not true that the study of history weakens the belief in a divine providence. History is, of all kinds of knowledge, the one which tends most decidedly to that belief."

PESFACB. 5

.But history can be most profitably studied, only wlien, in connection with the unfolding and regulated order of its events, we are prepared by the previous study of the Moral System, to see that it is pervaded by a plan which gives unity to that scheme of things whose sequences history records.

In like manner the study of the Moral System, m connection with other branches of science, is commended by its utility; but apart from this coiisideration, its intrinsic claims to investigation are paramount. If the laws of health concern our physical well-being, and if they demand recognition in the science of physiology, there are also laws of moral as well as mental health, which should not be overlooked, and if the order of the planetary and stellar worlds invites our attention, the order which is seen to pervade the Moral System will especially demand our recognition. Yery justly has William Archer Butler remarked {Aug. Fhil, II., 56) : " With all our admiration for the energetic labors of the great naturalists of our day, and for the advances which the physical sciences are receiving through their combined exertions, v/e cannot refuse to see — and in all quarters the conviction is gaining strength among thoughtful men — that the spiritual world (except as far as practically presented by the preachers of religion) is in proportion eclipsed. It is, as it were, tm represented in the Parliament of Philosophy. This huge material universe, with all its labyrinth of laws, seems to fetter and entangle us ; and v/e are so overwhelmed by weight and motion, that matter and being become equivalent terms, and we cannot allow the existence of a world to which these material attributes are ■not attached."

Such a grave practical error as this needs to be corrected, and it should be corrected at the very source in which it originated. We are .not unwarrantably intruding into the religious sphere, or introducing sectarian elements into education, when we simply call attention to facts as obvious and indisputable as any that physical science reveals, and put upon them an interpretation justified by the laws of scientific method. To a certain extent we follow a track of thought, neither exclusively Pagan or Christian, but common to both, a track which runs parallel, indeed, only to a certain extent with that of revealed truth, but which constitutes the line which any consistent theory of obligation, whether of ethics or religion, must recognize.

In all ages of intellectual activity, the most profound students have found themselves constrained to note, and to endeavor, at least, to interpret those great facts lying along the path of human experience, which indicate a superintending providence and human accountability. Indeed, a very

6 PREFACE.

large portion of ancient literature lias been shaped and colored by views of the relation of the human to divine, which, though conjoined with many errors, were yet expressive or suggestive of valuable truth ; and if, instead of accepting its guidance, we subject its teachings to criticism, availing ourselves of the clearer light of reason which belongs to a Christian age, we may hope to attain results in advance of any goal which it was able to reach, and to discern how solid is the basis upon which the fundamental truths of theology, natural and revealed, repose.

It is proper to add, that the closing chapter of my work on " God in Human Thought ; or, Natural Theology Traced in Literature," is included also in this volume, for which it was originally prepared.

At the close of the treatise, I have appended questions designed to facilitate its use as a text-book, and these questions cover the Historical Introduction as well as the main body of the work. As the Introduction is a very concise summary of the course of speculation anterior to the time of Butler, and as much of it has special reference to his "Analogy," the teacher can, at his discretion, use such portions of it only as he sees fitting, or omit it altogether. Many of its facts, however, should, in the latter case, be given by the teacher, by way of illustration, in connection with lessons on " The Moral System."

I had intended to include in the work a bibliography extending from the time of Butler to the present, but even the somewhat incomplete one which I had prepared, would have very materially increased the bulk and cost of the volume, and I have been compelled to content myself with giving a quite meagre list of the leading works belonging to this period, which have followed in the line of Butler's speculations. They will be found in a note at the close of the Historical Introduction.

New York, September 29, 1874.

Contents

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Testimony op CiiAssic Literature, . . 9

I

Tpie System of ligature, in tlie proper sense of the phrase, includes not merely the matter, but the constitution and laws of the entire universe. The idea of system is the placing together of things in orderly or established relations. There may be system where we cannot discern the evidences of it, and manifold and extensive analogies compel us to assume its existence where these evidences are wanting. On this ground we feel warranted to employ the phrase — System of Nature — ■ and to infer that there is system throughout nature ; in other words, that it is universal.

But the universal system of nature includes moral as well as physical elements. The latter have often been termed natural as distinguished from moral, but the foriner as well as the latter, are natural. They belong to the great whole of being. Their existence does not admit of dispute or question, and they stand together in established relations, whether the fact be recognized or not. Experience and observation assure us of it, insomuch that we speak, and must speak, of moral as well as physical laws, of intellectual, social, emotional, as well as material forces.

As the Sidereal System is made up of subordinate systems, which yet in mutual connection constitute a grand imity, so the System of Nature is composed of minor constituent systems, articulated or interwoven together ; yet in such a way that each may be considered by itseK, as well as related to the others. We may investigate the system of vegetable or of animal life, or, with Cudworth, discuss the " Intellectual System " of the universe, but we do so by abstracting from the

10 THE MOEAL SYSTEM NATURAL.

whole a certain class of elements, possessed of distinct characters and relations, and considering these apart by themselves. If, in this way, we take up the constitution of man as a moral agent, and the laws which assert their authority over him as such, visiting him with reward or penalty, or plying him with motives appropriate to his nature, we have, under th6 System of ISTature, and included as an essential part of it, what requires a distinctive term, and to this the name Moral System is appropriately applied.

This moral system is thus seen to be natural. It is a component part of the system of nature, interwoven with and an integral portion of it, and distinguished from it only in our thoughts for purposes of investigation. It is included under the phrase constitution and laws of nature, and, although we might suppose a material universe, exclusive of moral elements, yet the actual universe embraces them, and cannot properly be understood, explained, or appreciated without them. Indeed, it may be that in them we shall find — apart from revelation — the fittest key to the interpretation of nature ; hints to explain the significance of material things and arrangements, which the things or arrangements, in themselves, do not afford. The Moral System, therefore, is in the highest sense natural, and the contrast is not between natural and moral, but between moral and physical. • But a moral system must be distinguished from moral government. The latter is more directly suggestive of the element of personal administration or supervision, not that the former excludes, or does not imply it, but it leaves it more in the background. "With this exception, the term Tnoral system is more comprehensive in its significance than moral government. It includes, or may include, much more than the mere administration of law, with a view of swaying men to obedience by means of reward and penalty. Reformatory discipline, remedial provisions for transgression, moral influences infinite in their variety, as well as trial and probation, including the temporary arrest of judicial processes, are all consistent with a perfect moral system, while they would imply an imperfect, or rather, incomplete and modified moral government. The evidence that would fail to prove a. perfect moral geeek; weitees. 11

government, miglit be fully adequate to prove tlie existence of a moral system, and a moral system tliat included many elements of moral government. All that would be required would be to adduce facts indicative of the operation of laws plainly designed to produce certain moral results, or discourage from certain courses of action, objectionable on moral grounds, showing at the same time that these facts are of general significance, and that these laws, however tardily, are yet systematically applied and enforced.

It is not surprising, therefore, that from the earliest period of recorded human thought, we should find the existence of a moral system assumed. It may be grossly apprehended. Apparent incongruities or imperfections connected with it may even seem to imply an imperfect administration, or furnish some plausible ground for ascribing the phenomena of the moral order of the world to opposite principles, or a variety of divinities. In some cases there will naturally be a disposition to harmonize or solve these incongruities from a Theistic standpoint ; in others, they will be accepted as inexplicable mysteries, or as proofs that the sphinx-like riddle of human existence is quite insoluble. But in most cases there wiU be some recognition of superhuman forces acting with design, concessions of a providence that exercises some hind of control, whether capriciously, or wisely and beneficently, over the affairs of men.

Throughout ancient classic literature, we trace an undercurrent of thought of this kind, and sometimes it comes distinctly to the surface. In Solon's counsel to Crossus, to count no man happy till he is dead, we recognize, in connection with his repute for wisdom, his convictions of a providence that may make the splendors of wealth and power illustrate the supremacy of the great unseen power of justice, that determines finally all human allotments. No careful student of Herodotus has failed to notice as a leading characteristic of his work, its almost constant recognition of a providence that exults to abase the proud, and defeat the designs of the mightiest ruler, who, like the Persian monarch, could seek to ciT.sh a free and enterprising people. Anaxagoras breaks loose from the precedents of a materialistic philosophy, to declare that the

12 PYTHAGORAS. PLATO.

origin of creation, with its establislied order, is inexplicable, without an informing mind, Pythagoras, in his famous letter Y, draws the picture of the branching paths of virtue and vice, " the broad and narrow ways," one strait and difficult, but with its rich revi^ards ; the other smooth and easy, but with its terrible sequel of retribution. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul he is said to have received from Pherecydes — said to have been indebted to the secret books of the Phoenicians — or to have derived it from Egypt, while, amid the vagaries of Polytheism, he attained, with his theory of numbers, to the conception of the One. Empedocles recognized the dependence on the Gods of " the creature of a day," and the stern law of retribution that would follow its blood-stained victim for "thrice ten thousand years." His idea of the Deity is that of " a holy infinite Spirit, not provided with limbs, th5,t passes through the world with rapid thoughts," while the power of necessity seems by him identified with " the ancient decree of the Gods."

Democritus, although the Ilobbes of his age, and making a prudent egoism the corner-stone of his ethics, called the common notion of chance a cover for human ignorance. Socrates, repelled by the scepticisms of the sophists and their ethics of selfishness, apprehended with unprecedented clearness the leading truths of the moral system ; arguing the divine existence from design in nature ; making virtue the highest interest of man ; acknowledging an overruling providence ; asserting the punishment of sin, in sin itself ; and in his own example illustrating a sublime integrity that would accept the fatal hemlock sooner than seek to escape penalty by anything unworthy of himself ; and on his trial before his judges, and with his friends around him in his prison, giving evidence of being supported by that hope of immortality which assured his spirit of a final home with good men and with the Gods.

In Plato we meet with the most remarkable thinker of the ancient heathen world. "With much that is crudely theoretic or fanciful, there is much that excites our admiration and commands our assent. A supreme mind, an overruling providence, stern laws of duty, personal responsibility, the immortality of the soul, the depraved tendencies of human nature,

AEISTOTLE. HOMEE. 13

the high, and inspiring prospects of virtue, the impartial severity of final judgment, stern and inevitable retribution— these are among the most important topics on which he lavishes the wealth of his genius, while he reveals his own loftj conception of the possibilities of human existence. Aristotle, more cool and cautious, is theoretically a pure Theist, and to him Cicero has ascribed an argument which anticipates, in a very impressive manner, modern arguments for a creating mind from the design evinced in creation. He speaks of the future destiny of the soul in conditional phraseology, but in his l^icomachean ethics, he brings forward clearly and emphatically the fact of moral distinctions, and displays those features of the moral system with which virtue harmonizes, and vice is at issue. Later Greek philosophy was content to copy from its great masters of the Platonic age, refining upon their speculations only to give them a false development ; although sometimes, as in the sublime hymn of Cleanthes, rising to apprehensions of the Divine being and providence, not unworthy of the finest conceptions of Plato himself. Notwithstanding the pictures he gives us of the disgraceful quarrels and vulgar huijian passions . of the rulers of Olympus, Homer re]3resents Zeus as the moral governor of the world. He is king of gods and men, the sovereign administrator over all human interests. The good or evil from the two urns before him, are dispensed by his hand. His providenpe is universal, and the retributive forces of the universe cooperate v/ith his designs to maintain the moral order of the world. The fearful Erinnyes " represent Law in action." Mure remarks, in his " Critical History of Greek Language and Literature " (I. 1Y2), with reference both to the Iliad and 'the Odyssey, " The general scheme of divine management in both poems is consistent and well-imagined. The supreme first cause or cflicient unity of the Deity, is Fate or Destiny. Zeus always steps in between contending powers as the Saviour God, and invariably turns the scale in favor of virtue." Thus, the doctrine of a superintending and controlling providence is ever kept in view. Strength, Vvdsdom, and courage are the gifts of the Gods. They hear the prayers of mortals and mete out their lot ; Law is recognized as of universal obli-

gation. Invisible, but resistless forces execute it. Conceptions of them, evidently traditional, and accepted by Homer, are impersonated in Dike, Themis, !Nomos, or Nemesis, sometimes the one and sometimes the other; but ever the same idea of justice or retribution — ever sitting at the right hand of Zeus, and acting as his judicial associates or consessors. It is especially in that dread word, Nemesis^ which Homer transmitted to the later Greek literature, that we recognize the idea of inevitable justice, and to this Fate sets the seal.

In Hesiod, the Gods, " invisible, are ever nigh." Man has ten thousand unseen guardians, commissioned from on high, who rove the world. Eternal justice has her mansion in the sky, and her place at the feet of Zeus, where she presents her plaint, till retribution comes upon guilty nations. Wickedness wounds itself, and in the end its seeming prosperity is vain. The two paths of Hesiod are substantially identical with the two of Pythagoras.

Pindar exhibits a firm 'belief in a superintending providence. " The whole of his poetry is impregnated with a lively sense of the divine in the world." "ISTo Greek writer ex- . presses himself, in reference to the certainty of final and exact retribution, more confidently than Pindar." The Gods give victory, but " they enjoin duties, and humility, gratitude and moderation are obligatory."

^schylus is the Milton of Greek poetry. ISTearer than any of his rivals does he approach the terrible and impressive sublimity of the Hebrew prophets. ^Nemesis, the Fates and the Furies, are with him impersonated forces. Zeus is the chastiser of arrogance and overbearing thoughts. Crime can never escape final retribution. The invisible curse threads its way along the ages, and through generations, till the guilt is expi ■ ated. IsTothing is accidental. The moral system stands as firm as the throne of its Eternal Ruler.

Sophocles, coming nearer to our human sympathies, and with more of harmony and sweetness, is by no means less lofty in his ethics. ISTo one has drawn more exquisitely the beauty of virtue when subject to trial. ITo one has invested " the eternal unwritten laws " of God with a more impressive majesty. Over these a sleepless and resistless providence pre-

CICESO. 15

sides. To guilt, however hedged with power, there is no possibility of escape. Fate is resistless, and there is a " mighty Zeus " in heaven. Wilful wrong-doing challenges his wrath and its own doom. The soul is immortal, and retribution reaches beyond the grave. In Euripides, the influence of the age of the Sophists is distinctly to be traced. Instead of looking upward to the majestic heavenly hannonies, his eye is turned do^vnward to the earth. He sees the world, if not a vale of tears, a moral labyrinth, and his tragedies reflect the puzzling mazes and confused scenes of a moral system in which inexplicable problems are involved.

It would delay us too long to trace the views of providence involved in such works as the " History of Thucydides," and the "Orations of Demosthenes." Yet the narrative of the one, and the appeals of the other, indicate a prevalent popular sentiment that the Gods favor justice, and that their providence superintends the affairs of men.

The two great sects of Epicureans and Stoics were rivals, and yet each bore testimony to fragmentary portions of the moral order of the world. The foimer, leaving the Gods to their eternal repose, still admitted that human happiness was subjected to certain flxed conditions, and that wisdom required the study of these. The Stoics, eulogizing and almost deifying virtue, made the good man who possessed it invincible by suffering or calamity. They vitalized the universe, and filled it with a providence, however crudely conceived. Their philosophy appealed strongly to the admiration and sympathies of those who had inherited a regard for the old Eoman ideal of virtue. But a sceptical element had been transmitted by the Academics, and we see its operation in the mind of Cicero as he discusses " The INTature of the Gods." Epicurean, Stoic, and Academic are alike allowed a hearing, and in the Tusculan questions, we have the speculations of the most gifted of Koman orators and philosophers, on the immortality of the soul. Cicero accepts, with qualifications of doubt and uncertainty, most of the doctrines transmitted from Plato. He gives in his adhesion to the theory of a divine providence over human interests. He accepts and amplifies the conception of the eternal unwritten law. He magnifies the beauty

IG SENECA. PLUTAKCn.

and claims of virtue, declining to conceal his abhon'ence of

mere utilitarian ethics. As to the immortality of the soul, his confidence wavers ; while he reads Plato his doubts vanish, hut onlj again to reappear when he has laid the book aside.

This is true also of 'Seneea, and yet in his writings we find the recognition of moral duties and relations, which are held up to view, as a check, if possible, upon the depravity of the age. Of human nature, his picture is far from flattering ; but he manifests a high appreciation of the excellence and beauty of virtue, while few ancient writers go beyond him in the sublime conception of an universal providence. He m.ay use, like his contemporaries, such terms as fate or fortune, but he hai'monizes them with his theistic scheme, and leaves nothing to chance. The Stoic ideal of living " according to nature," commends itself to his approval, but this nature is to be consistent with the supremacy of reason.

Plutarch is more thoroughly human and genial, an Eclectic in his philosophy, but with strong stoical leanings. He believes that " the art of a great understanding produced the world ;" that the condition of man, without a presiding Intelligence, would be pitiable ; that Providence is wise and beneficent ; that man, in whom we see the ripe fruit of the Creator's plans, has an immortal destiny before him, and is not to be blasted or extinguished in a moment and forever ; that the hope of immortality is needed to sustain the soul ; that virtue is ordaiued to be closely allied to blessedness, and vice to misery ; that happiness does not consist in what is external, but the soul itself may become its own bitterest tormentor ; that for guilt there is no escape, while wealth and power cannot afford it ease or security. It is true, as set forth in De Sera Ifnminis Yindicta, that deserved retribution is tardily inflicted, but this shows that God does not punish in haste and anger, while swift penalty might involve the innocent with the guilty, or out off chosen instruments of Providence before their time, or deny merciful opportunities for repentance. The visitation of the iniquity of parents upon children makes a more lasting and salutary impression. Lingering justice allows also for moral discipline. Submission to unavoidable evils is a duty. "We come into being, not to prescribe our

ANTONmuS. EPICTETUS. 17

own lot, but to accept what is given, and obey tlae Gods that govern the world. Future retribution is accepted and held in Plato's sense. Moral distinctions are not conventional, but eternal. Self-examination and introspection are the part of every wise man. I^ature is not void of reason, but full of God.

The "Meditations" of the imperial philosopher, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, set before us the highest Stoic ideal. He reverences the power of Gods who exist, although, like his own soul, unseen. A wise Providence has established and guards the moral order of the world. The " Universal jN^ature " — Pantheistic as the phrase may sound — is at once resistless, intelligent, and just. Fate is the necessary connection or consequence of causes, as related to events. There is no real evil in the world. Nothing happens ; all is preordained, yet the governing intelligence has no malice toward any. There is a moral order of the world, a mutual adjustment, as of squared stones in a wall or pyramid. Soul andbody have different destinies. For the former, there may be a life hereafter, but if otherwise, it has reached its port ; it is released from the body that enslaved it. It will be absorbed in the universal soul, for in its origin, it is an efflux from God. Man's duty here, is to live " according to nature," to follow reason, the great law of the universe ; to keep the soul within unpolluted, and follow its dictates as those of a god. Stoic virtue will teach how to endure, and take their sting from the unequal allotments of life.

In Epictetus we meet with ethical teachings and conceptions, which, for loftiness and beauty, are unsurpassed among heathen writers. The Poman slave, subject, with his feeble frame, to more than ordinary hardships, is a more genuine philosopher than his imperial rival. The purity of his doctrine, and his own virtuous example, have warranted the epithet bestowed upon him, of "the great ornament" of the Stoic School. His recognition of the moral order of the world is habitual. He dwells impressively on the Omnipresence of God. The nature and reason of man indicate his duty. " A rational creature," he says, " I must sing hymns to God." To Him belongs the a-oodness of a father, and the 2