THERE is no part of Philosophy of more importance, than a just Knowledge of Human Nature, and its various Powers and Dispositions. Our late Inquirys have been very much employ'd about our Understanding, and the several Methods of obtaining Truth. We generally acknowledge, that the Importance of any Truth is nothing else than its Moment, or Efficacy to make Men happy, or to give them the greatest and most lasting Pleasure; and Wisdom denotes only a Capacity of pursuing this End by the best Means. It must surely then be of the greatest importance, to have distinct Conceptions of this End itself, as well as of the Means necessary to obtain it; that we may find out which are the greatest and most lasting Pleasures, and not employ our Reason, after all our laborious Improvements of it, in trifling Pursuits. It is to be fear'd indeed, that most of our Studys, without this Inquiry, will be of very little use to us; for they seem to have scarce any other tendency than to lead us into speculative Knowledge itself. Nor are we distinctly told how it is that Knowledge or Truth is pleasant to us.
THIS Consideration put the Author of the following Papers upon inquiring into the various Pleasures which Human Nature is capable of receiving. We shall generally find in our modern philosophick Writings, nothing further on this Head, than some bare Division of them into Sensible, and Rational, and some trite Common-place Arguments to prove the latter more valuable than the former. Our sensible Pleasures are slightly pass'd over, and explain'd only by some Instances in Tastes, Smells, Sounds, or such-like, which Men of any tolerable Reflection generally look upon as very trifling Satisfactions. Our rational Pleasures have had much the same kind of Treatment. We are seldom taught any other Notion of rational Pleasure than that which we have upon reflecting on our Possession, or Claim to those Objects, which may be Occasions of Pleasure. Such Objects we call advantageous; but Advantage, or Interest, cannot be distinctly conceiv'd, till we know what those Pleasures are which advantageous Objects are apt to excite; and what Senses or Powers of Perception we have with respect to such Objects. We may perhaps find such an Inquiry of more importance in Morals, to prove what we call the Reality of Virtue, or that it is the surest Happiness of the Agent, than one would at first imagine.
IN reflecting upon our external Senses, we plainly see, that our Perceptions of Pleasure, or Pain, do not depend directly on our Will. Objects do not please us, according as we incline they should. The presence of some Objects necessarily pleases us, and the presence of others as necessarily displeases us. Nor can we, by our Will, any otherwise procure Pleasure, or avoid Pain, than by procuring the former kind of Objects, and avoiding the latter. By the very Frame of our Nature the one is made the occasion of Delight, and the other of Dissatisfaction.
THE same Observation will hold in all our other Pleasures and Pains. For there are many other sorts of Objects, which please, or displease us as necessarily, as material Objects do when they operate upon our Organs of Sense. There are few Objects which are not thus constituted the necessary occasion of some Pleasure or Pain. Thus we find our selves pleas'd with a regular Form, a piece of Architecture or Painting, a Composition of Notes, a Theorem, an Action, an Affection, a Character. And we are conscious that this Pleasure necessarily arises from the Contemplation of the Idea, which is then present to our Minds, with all its Circumstances, although some of these Ideas have nothing of what we call sensible Perception in them; and in those which have, the Pleasure arises from some Uniformity, Order, Arrangement, Imitation; and not from the simple Ideas of Colour, or Sound, or mode of Extension separately consider'd.
THESE Determinations to be pleas'd with certain complex Forms, the Author chuses to call Senses; distinguishing them from the Powers which commonly go by that Name, by calling our Power of perceiving the Beauty of Regularity, Order, Harmony, an Internal Sense; and that Determination to approve Affections, Actions, or Characters of rational Agents, which we call virtuous, he marks by the name of a Moral Sense.
HIS principal Design is to shew, That
Human Nature was not left quite indifferent in the affair of Virtue, to form to itself Observations concerning the Advantage, or Disadvantage of Actions, and accordingly to regulate its Conduct. The weakness of our Reason, and the avocations arising from the Infirmity and Necessitys of our Nature, are so great, that very few Men could ever have form'd those long Deductions of Reason, which shew some Actions to be in the whole advantageous to the Agent, and their Contrarys pernicious. The Author of Nature has much better furnish'd us for a virtuous Conduct, than some Moralists seem to imagine, by almost as quick and powerful Instructions, as we have for the preservation of our Bodys. He has given us strong Affections to be the Springs of each virtuous Action; and made Virtue a lovely Form, that we might easily distinguish it from its Contrary, and be made happy by the Pursuit of it.
THIS Moral Sense of Beauty in Actions and Affections, may appear strange at first View. Some of our Moralists themselves are offended at it in my Lord Shaftesbury; so much are they accustomed to deduce every Approbation, or Aversion, from rational Views of private Interest, (except it be merely in the simple Ideas of the external Senses) and have such a Horror at innate Ideas, which they imagine this borders upon. But this moral Sense has no relation to innate Ideas, as will appear in the second Treatise.
OUR Gentlemen of good Taste, can tell us of a great many Senses, Tastes, and Relishes for Beauty, Harmony, Imitation in Painting and Poetry; and may not we find too in Mankind a Relish for a Beauty in Characters, in Manners? It will perhaps be found, that the greater Part of the Ingenious Arts are calculated to please some Natural Powers, pretty different either from what we commonly call Reason, or the External Senses.
IN the first Treatise, the Author perhaps in some Instances has gone too far, in supposing a greater Agreement of Mankind in their Sense of Beauty, than Experience will confirm; but all he is solicitous about is to shew, That there is some
Sense of Beauty natural to Men; that we find as great an Agreement of Men in their Relishes of Forms, as in their external Senses, which all agree to be natural; and that Pleasure or Pain, Delight or Aversion, are naturally join'd to their Perceptions. If the Reader be convinc'd of this, it will be no difficult matter to apprehend another superior Sense, natural also to Men, determining them to be pleas'd with Actions, Characters, Affections. This is the moral Sense, which makes the Subject of the second Treatise.
THE proper Occasions of Perception by the external Senses, occur to us as soon as we come into the World; whence perhaps we easily look upon these Senses to be natural: but the Objects of the superior Senses of Beauty and Virtue generally do not. It is probably some little time before Children reflect, or at least let us know that they reflect upon Proportion and Similitude; upon Affections, Characters, Tempers; or come to know the external Actions which are Evidences of them. Hence we imagine that their Sense of Beauty, and their moral Sentiments of Actions, must be entirely owing to Instruction and Education; whereas it is as easy to conceive, how a Character, a Temper, as soon as they are observ'd, may be constituted by Nature the necessary occasion of Pleasure, or an Object of Approbation, as a Taste or a Sound; tho' these Objects present themselves to our Observation sooner than the other.
THE first Impression of these Papers was so well receiv'd, that the Author hopes it will be no Offence to any who are concern'd in the Memory of the late Lord Viscount Molesworth, if he lets his Readers know that he was the Noble Person mention'd in the Preface to the first Edition, and that their being publish'd was owing to his Approbation of them. It was from him he had that shrewd Objection, which the Reader may find in the first Treatise[1]; besides many other Remarks in the frequent Conversations with which he honour'd the Author; by which that Treatise was very much improv'd beyond what it was in the Draught presented to him. The Author retains the most grateful Sense of his singular Civilities, and of the Pleasure and Improvement he received in his Conversation; and is still fond of expressing his grateful Remembrance of him: but,
Id cinerem, & Manes credas curare sepultos?
TO be concern'd in this Book can be no honour to a Person so justly celebrated for the most generous Sentiments of Virtue and Religion, deliver'd with the most manly Eloquence: yet it would not be just toward the World, should the Author conceal his Obligations to the Reverend =Mr. ^Edward Syng^=; not only for revising these Papers, when they stood in great need of an accurate Review, but for suggesting several just Amendments in the general Scheme of Morality. The Author was much confirm'd in his Opinion of the Justness of these Thoughts, upon finding that this Gentleman had fallen into the same way of Thinking before him; and will ever look upon his Friendship as one of the greatest Advantages and Pleasures of his Life.
TO recommend the Lord Shaftesbury's Writings to the World, is a very needless Attempt. They will be esteem'd while any Reflection remains among Men. It is indeed to be wish'd, that he had abstain'd from mixing with such Noble Performances, some Prejudices he had receiv'd against Christianity; a Religion which gives us the truest Idea of Virtue, and recommends the Love of God, and of Mankind, as the Sum of all true Religion. How would it have moved the Indignation of that ingenious Nobleman, to have found a dissolute set of Men, who relish nothing in Life but the lowest and most sordid Pleasures, searching into his Writings for those Insinuations against Christianity, that they might be the less restrained from their Debaucherys; when at the same time their low Minds are incapable of relishing those noble Sentiments of Virtue and Honour, which he has placed in so lovely a Light!
WHATEVER Faults the Ingenious may find with this Performance, the Author hopes no body will find any thing in it contrary to Religion, or good Manners: and he shall be well pleased, if he gives the learned World an occasion of examining more thoroughly these Subjects, which are, he presumes, of very considerable Importance. The chief Ground of his Assurance that his Opinions in the main are just, is this, That as he took the first Hints of them from some of the greatest Writers of Antiquity, so the more he has convers'd with them, he finds his Illustrations the more conformable to their Sentiments.
IN the later Editions, what Alterations are made, are partly owing to the Objections of some Gentlemen, who wrote very keenly against several Principles in this Book. The Author was convinc'd of some inaccurate Expressions, which are now alter'd; and some Arguments, he hopes, are now made clearer: but he has not yet seen Cause to renounce any of the Principles maintain'd in it. Nor is there any thing of Consequence added, except in Sect. II. of Treatise 2d; and the same Reasoning is found in Sect. I. of the Essay on the Passions.
IN this 4th Edition there are Additions interspersed, to prevent Objections which have been published against this Scheme by several Authors; and some Mathematical Expressions are left out, which, upon second Thoughts, appear'd useless, and were disagreeable to some Readers.
Sect. v. Art. 2. the last Paragraph.