or,what is still more probable,he knew not that the subject had been so much as touched upon by that penetrating and acute metaphysician,whose works lie so much out of the beaten track of Academic reading.But here,as it happens,there is no matter for such fears.Those men,who are most alarmed at the dangers of a free enquiry;those who are most intimately convinced that the surest way to truth is by hearing nothing but on one side,will,I dare answer almost,find nothing of that which they deem poison in this third volume.I would not wish to send the Reader to any other than this,which,if I recollect aright,stands clear of the objections that have of late been urged,with so much vehemence,against the work in general.[By Dr BEATTIE,in his Essay on the Immutability of Truth.]
As to the two first,the Author himself,I am inclined to think,is not ill disposed,at present,to join with those who are of opinion,that they nsight,without any great loss to the science of Human Nature,be dispensed with.The like might be said,perhaps,of a considerable part,even of this.But,after all retrenchments,there will still remain enough to have laid mankind under indelible obligations.That the foundations of all virtue are laid in utility,is there demonstrated,after a few exceptions made,with the strongest force of evidence:but I see not,any more than Helvetius saw,what need there was for the exceptions.
2.For my own part,I well remember,no sooner had I read that part of the work which touches on this subject,than I felt as if scales had fallen from my eyes,I then,for the first time,learnt to call the cause of the people the cause of Virtue.
Perhaps a short sketch of the wanderings of a raw but well-intentioned mind,in its researches after moral truth,may,on this occasion,be not unuseful:for the history of one mind is the history of many.The writings of the honest,but prejudiced,Earl of Clarendon to whose integrity nothing was wanting,and to whose wisdom little,but the fortune of living something later;and the contagion of a monkish atmosphere;these,and other concurrent causes,had listed my infant affections on the side of despotism.The Genius of the place I dwelt in,the authority of the state,the voice of the Church in her solemn offices;all these taught me to call Charles a Martyr,and his opponents rebels.I saw innovation,where indeed innovation,but a glorious innovation,was,in their efforts to withstand him.I saw falsehood,where indeed falsehood was,in their disavowals of innovation.I saw selfishness,and an obedience to the call of passion,in the efforts of the oppressed to rescue themselves from oppression.I saw strong countenance lent in the sacred writings to monarchic government:and none to any other.I saw passive obedience deep stamped with the seal of the Christian Virtues of humility and self-denial.