AN ENQUIRY Into the ORIGIN
of MORAL VIRTUE.
ALL untaught Animals are only sollicitous of pleasing
themselves, and naturally follow the bent of their own
Inclinations, without considering the good or harm
that from their being pleased will accrue to others.
This is the Reason, that in the wild State of Nature
those creatures are fittest to live peaceably together
in great Numbers, that discover the least of
Understanding, and have the fewest Appetites to
gratify; and consequently no Species of Animals is,
without the Curb of Government, less capable of
agreeing long together in Multitudes than that of Man;
yet such are his Qualities, whether good or bad, I
shall not determine, that no Creature besides himself
can ever be made sociable: But being an ex-traordinary
selfish and headstrong, as well as cunning Animal,
however he may be subdued by superior Strength, it is
impossible by Force alone to make him tractable, and
receive the Improvements he is capable of.
The Chief Thing, therefore, which Lawgivers and other
wise Men, that have laboured for the Establishment of
Society, have endeavour’d, has been to make the People
they were to govern, believe, that it was more
beneficial for every Body to conquer than indulge his
Appetites, and much better to mind the Publick than
what seem’d his private Interest. As this has always
been a very difficult Task, so no Wit or Eloquence has
been left untried to compass it; and the Moralists and
Philosophers of all Ages employed their utmost Skill
to prove the Truth of so useful an Assertion. But
whether Mankind would have ever believ’d it
or not, it is not likely that any Body could have
persuaded them to disapprove of their natural
Inclinations, or prefer the good of others to their
own, if at the same time he had not shew’d them an
Equivalent to be enjoy’d as a Reward for the Violence,
which by so doing they of necessity must commit upon
themselves. Those that have undertaken to civilize
Mankind, were not ignorant of this; but being unable
to give so many real Rewards as would satisfy all
Persons for every individual Action, they were forc’d
to contrive an imaginary one, that as a general
Equivalent for the trouble of Self-denial should serve
on all Occasions, and without costing any thing either
to themselves or others, be yet a most acceptable
Recompense to the Receivers.
They thoroughly examin’d all the Strength and
Frailties of our Nature, and observing that none were
either so savage as not to be charm’d with Praise, or
so despicable as patiently to bear Contempt, justly
concluded, that Flattery must be the most powerful
Argument that could be used to Human Creatures. Making
use of this bewitching Engine, they extoll’d the
Excellency of our Nature above other Animals, and
setting forth with unbounded Praises the Wonders of
our Sagacity and Vastness of Understanding, bestow’d a
thousand Encomiums on the Rationality of our Souls, by
the Help of which we were capable of performing the
most noble Atchievements. Having by this artful way of
Flattery insinuated themselves into the Hearts of Men,
they began to instruct them in the Notions of Honour
and Shame; representing the one as the worst of all
Evils, and the other as the highest Good to which
Mortals could aspire: Which being done, they laid
before them how unbecoming it was the Dignity of such
sublime Creatures to be sollicitous about gratifying
those Appetites, which they had in common with Brutes,
and at the same time unmindful of those higher
Qualities that gave them the preeminence over all
visible Beings. They indeed confess’d, that those
impulses of Nature were very pressing; that it was
troublesome to resist, and very difficult wholly to
subdue them. But this they only used as an Argument to
demonstrate, how glorious the Conquest of them was on
the one hand, and how scandalous on the other not to
attempt it.
To introduce, moreover, an Emulation amongst Men,
they divided the whole Species into two Classes,
vastly differing from one another: The one consisted
of abject, low-minded People, that always hunting
after immediate Enjoyment, were wholly incapable of
Self-denial, and without regard to the good of others,
had no higher Aim than their private Advantage; such
as being enslaved by Voluptuousness, yielded without
Resistance to every gross desire, and made no use of
their Rational Faculties but to heighten their Sensual
Pleasure. These vile
grov’ling Wretches, they said, were the Dross of their
Kind, and having only the Shape of Men, differ’d from
Brutes in nothing but their outward Figure. But the
other Class was made up of lofty high-spirited
Creatures, that free from sordid Selfishness, esteem’d
the Improvements of the Mind to be their fairest
Possessions; and setting a true value upon themselves,
took no Delight but in embellishing that Part in which
their Excellency consisted; such as despising whatever
they had in common with irrational Creatures, opposed
by the Help of Reason their most violent Inclinations;
and making a continual War with themselves to promote
the Peace of others, aim’d at no less than the Publick
Welfare and the Conquest of their own Passion.
- Fortior est qui se quàm qui fortissima Vincit
- Mœnia — — — —
These they call’d the true Representatives of their
sublime Species, exceeding in worth the first Class by
more degrees, than that it self was superior to the
Beasts of the Field.
As in all Animals that are not too imperfect to
discover Pride, we find, that the finest and such as
are the most beautiful and valuable of their kind,
have generally the greatest Share of it; so in Man,
the most perfect of Animals, it is so
inseparable from his very Essence (how cunningly
soever some may learn to hide or disguise it) that
without it the Compound he is made of would want one
of the chiefest Ingredients: Which, if we consider, it
is hardly to be doubted but Lessons and Remonstrances,
so skilfully adapted to the good Opinion Man has of
himself, as those I have mentioned, must, if scatter’d
amongst a Multitude not only gain the assent of most
of them, as to the Speculative part, but likewise
induce several, especially the fiercest, most
resolute, and best among them, to endure a thousand
Inconveniences, and undergo as many Hardships, that
they may have the pleasure of counting themselves Men
of the second Class, and consequently appropriating to
themselves all the Excellences they have heard of it.
From what has been said, we ought to expect in the
first Place that the Heroes who took such
extraordinary Pains to master some of their natural
Appetites, and preferr’d the good of others to any
visible Interest of their own, would not recede an Inch from
the fine Notions they had receiv’d concerning the
Dignity of Rational Creatures; and having ever the
Authority of the Government on their side, with all
imaginable Vigour assert the esteem that was due to
those of the second Class, as well as their
Superiority over the rest of their kind. In the
second, that those who wanted a sufficient Stock of
either Pride or Resolution to buoy them up in
mortifying of what was dearest to them, follow’d the
sensual dictates of Nature, would yet be asham’d of
confessing themselves to be those despicable Wretches
that belong’d to the inferior Class, and were
generally reckon’d to be so little remov’d from
Brutes; and that therefore in their own Defence they
would say, as others did, and hiding their own
Imperfections as well as they could, cry up
Self-denial and Publick-spiritedness as much as any:
For it is highly probable, that some of them,
convinced by the real Proofs of Fortitude and
Self-Conquest they had seen, would admire in others
what they found wanting in themselves; others be
afraid of the Resolution and Prowess of those of the
second Class, and that all of them were kept in aw by
the Power of their Rulers; wherefore it is reasonable
to think, that none of them (whatever they thought in
themselves) would dare openly contradict, what by
every body else was thought Criminal to doubt of.
This was (or at least might have been) the manner
after which Savage Man was broke; from whence
it is evident, that the first Rudiments of Morality,
broach’d by skilful Politicians, to render Men useful
to each other as well as tractable, were chiefly
contrived that the Ambitious might reap the more
Benefit from, and govern vast Numbers of them with the
greater Ease and Security. This Foundation of
Politicks being once laid, it is impossible that Man
should long remain uncivilized: For even those who
only strove to gratify their Appetites, being
continually cross’d by others of the same Stamp, could
not but observe, that whenever they check’d their
Inclinations or but followed them with more
Circumspection, they avoided a world of Troubles, and
often escap’d many of the Calamities that generally
attended the too eager Pursuit after Pleasure.
First, they receiv’d, as well as others, the benefit
of those Actions that were done for the good of the
whole Society, and consequently could not forbear
wishing well to those of the superior Class that
perform’d them. Secondly, the more intent they were in
seeking their own Advantage, without Regard to others,
the more they were hourly convinced, that none stood
so much in their way as those that
were most like themselves.
It being the Interest then of the very worst of them,
more than any, to preach up Publick-spiritedness, that
they might reap the Fruits of the Labour and
Self-denial of others, and at the same time indulge
their own Appetites with less disturbance, they agreed
with the rest, to call every thing, which, without
Regard to the Publick, Man should commit to gratify
any of his Appetites, V I C E; if in that Action there
cou’d be observed the least prospect, that it might
either be injurious to any of the Society, or ever
render himself less serviceable to others: And to give
the Name of V I R T U E to every Performance, by which
Man, contrary to the impulse of Nature, should
endeavour the Benefit of others, or the Conquest of
his own Passions out of a Rational Ambition of
being good.
It shall be objected, that no Society was ever any
ways civiliz’d before the major part had agreed upon
some Worship or other of an over-ruling Power, and
consequently that the Notions of Good and Evil, and
the Distinction between Virtue and Vice,
were never the Contrivance of Politicians, but the
pure Effect of Religion. Before I answer this
Objection, I must repeat what I have said already,
that in this Enquiry into the Origin of Moral
Virtue, I speak neither of Jews or Christians,
but Man in his State of Nature and Ignorance of the
true Deity; and then I affirm, that the Idolatrous
Superstitions of all other Nations, and the pitiful
Notions they had of the Supreme Being, were incapable
of exciting Man to Virtue, and good for nothing but to
aw and amuse a rude and unthinking Multitude. It is
evident from History, that in all considerable
Societies, how stupid or ridiculous soever People’s
received Notions have been, as to the Deities they
worshipp’d, Human Nature has ever exerted it self in
all its Branches, and that there is no earthly Wisdom
or Moral Virtue, but at one time or other Men have
excell’d in it in all Monarchies and Commonwealths,
that for Riches and Power have been any ways
remarkable.
The Ægyptians, not satisfy’d with having
Deify’d all the ugly Monsters they could think on,
were so silly as to adore the Onions of their own
sowing; yet at the
same time their Country was the most famous Nursery of
Arts and Sciences in the World, and themselves more
eminently skill’d in the deepest Mysteries of Nature
than any Nation has been since.
No States or Kingdoms under Heaven have yielded more
or greater Patterns in all sorts of Moral Virtues than
the Greek and Roman Empires, more
especially the latter; and yet how loose, absurd and
ridiculous were their Sentiments as to Sacred Matters?
For without reflecting on the extravagant Number of
their Deities, if we only consider the infamous
Stories they father’d upon them, it is not to be
denied but that their Religion, far from teaching Men
the Conquest of their Passions, and the Way to Virtue,
seem’d rather contriv’d to justify their Appetites,
and encourage their Vices. But if we
would know what made ’em excel in Fortitude, Courage
and Magnanimity, we must cast our Eyes on the Pomp of
their Triumphs, the Magnificence of their Monuments
and Arches; their Trophies, Statues, and Inscriptions;
the variety of their Military Crowns, their Honours
decreed to the Dead, Publick Encomiums on the Living,
and other imaginary Rewards they bestow’d on Men of
Merit; and we shall find, that what carried so many of
them to the utmost Pitch of Self-denial, was nothing
but their Policy in making use of the most effectual
Means that human Pride could be flatter’d with.
It is visible then that it was not any Heathen
Religion or other Idolatrous Superstition, that first
put Man upon crossing his Appetites and subduing his
dearest Inclinations, but the skilful Management of
wary Politicians; and the nearer we search into human
Nature, the more we shall be convinced, that the Moral
Virtues are the Political Offspring which Flattery
begot upon Pride.
There is no Man of what Capacity or Penetration
soever, that is wholly Proof against the Witchcraft of
Flattery, if artfully perform’d, and suited to his
Abilities . Children
and Fools will swallow Personal Praise, but those that
are more cunning, must be manag’d with greater
Circumspection; and the more general the Flattery is,
the less it is suspected by those it is levell’d at.
What you say in Commendation of a whole Town is
receiv’d with Pleasure by all the Inhabitants: Speak
in Commendation of Letters in general, and every Man
of Learning will think himself in particular obliged
to you. You may safely praise the Employment a Man is
of, or the Country he was born in; because you give
him an Opportunity of screening the Joy he feels upon
his own account, under the Esteem which he pretends to
have for others.
It is common among cunning Men, that understand the
Power which Flattery has upon Pride, when they are
afraid they shall be impos’d upon, to enlarge, tho’
much against their Conscience, upon the Honour, fair
Dealing and Integrity of the Family, Country, or
sometimes the Profession of him they suspect; because
they know that Men often will change their resolution,
and act against their Inclination, that they may have
the Pleasure of continuing to appear in the Opinion of
Some, what they are conscious not to be in reality.
Thus Sagacious Moralists draw Men like Angels, in
hopes that the Pride at least of Some will put ’em
upon copying after the beautiful Originals which they
are represented to be.
When the Incomparable Sir Richard Steele , in the
usual Elegance of his easy Style, dwells on the
Praises of his sublime Species, and with all the
Embellishments of Rhetoric sets forth the Excellency
of Human Nature, it is
impossible not to be charm’d with his happy Turns of
Thought, and the Politeness of his Expressions. But
tho’ I have been often moved by the Force of his
Eloquence, and ready to swallow the ingenious
Sophistry with Pleasure, yet I could never be so
serious, but reflecting on his artful Encomiums I
thought on the Tricks made use of by the Women that
would teach Children to be mannerly. When an aukward
Girl, before she can either Speak or Go, begins after
many Intreaties to make the first rude Essays of
Curt’sying, the Nurse falls in an ecstacy of Praise
There’s a delicate Curt’sy! O fine Miss! There’s a
pretty Lady! Mama! Miss can make a better Curt’sy
than her Sister Molly! The same is echo’d over
by the Maids, whilst Mama almost hugs the Child to
pieces; only Miss Molly, who being four Years
older knows how to make a very handsome Curt’sy,
wonders at the Perverseness of their Judgment, and
swelling with Indignation, is ready to cry at the
Injustice that is done her, till, being whisper’d in
the Ear that it is only to please the Baby, and that
she is a Woman, she grows proud at being let into the
Secret, and rejoicing at the Superiority of her
Understanding, repeats what has been said with large
Additions, and insults over the Weakness of her
Sister, whom all this while she fancies to be the only
Bubble among them. These extravagant Praises would by
any one, above the Capacity of an Infant, be call’d
fulsome Flatteries, and, if you will, abominable Lies,
yet Experience teaches us, that by the help of such
gross Encomiums, young Misses will be brought to make
pretty Curt’sies, and behave themselves womanly much
sooner, and with less trouble, than they would without
them. ’Tis the same with Boys, whom they’ll strive to
persuade, that all fine Gentlemen do as they are bid,
and that none but Beggar Boys are rude, or dirty their
Clothes; nay, as soon as the wild Brat with his
untaught Fist begins to fumble for his Hat, the
Mother, to make him pull it off, tells him before he
is two Years old, that he is a Man; and if he repeats
that Action when she desires him, he’s presently a
Captain, a Lord Mayor, a King, or something higher if
she can think of it, till egg’d on by the force of
Praise, the little Urchin endeavours to imitate Man as
well as he can, and strains all his Faculties to
appear what his shallow Noddle imagines he is believ’d
to be.
The meanest Wretch puts an inestimable value upon
himself, and the highest wish of the Ambitious Man is
to have all the World, as to that particular, of his
Opinion: So that the most insatiable Thirst after Fame
that ever Heroe was inspired with, was never more than
an ungovernable Greediness to engross the Esteem and
Admiration of others in future Ages as well as his
own; and (what Mortification soever this Truth might
be to the second Thoughts of an Alexander or a
Cæsar) the great Recompence in view, for which
the most exalted Minds have with so much Alacrity
sacrificed their Quiet, Health, sensual Pleasures, and
every Inch of themselves, has never been any thing
else but the Breath of Man, the Aerial Coin of Praise.
Who can forbear laughing when he thinks on all the
great Men that have been so serious on the Subject of
that Macedonian Madman, his capacious
Soul, that mighty Heart, in one Corner of which,
according to Lorenzo Gratian, the World was
so commodiously Lodged, that in the whole there was
room for Six more? Who can forbear Laughing, I say,
when he compares the fine things that have been said
of Alexander, with the End he proposed to
himself from his vast Exploits, to be proved from his
own Mouth; when the vast Pains he took to pass the Hydaspes
forced him to cry out? Oh ye Athenians, could
you believe what Dangers I expose my self to, to be
praised by you! To define
then the Reward
of Glory in the amplest manner, the most that can be
said of it, is, that it consists in a superlative
Felicity which a Man, who is conscious of having
perform’d a noble Action, enjoys in Self-love, whilst
he is thinking on the Applause he expects of others.
But here I shall be told, that besides the noisy
Toils of War and
publick Bustle of the Ambitious, there are noble and
generous Actions that are perform’d in Silence; that
Virtue being its own Reward, those who are really Good
have a Satisfaction in their Consciousness of being
so, which is all the Recompence they expect from the
most worthy Performances; that among the Heathens
there have been Men, who, when they did good to
others, were so far from coveting Thanks and Applause,
that they took all imaginable Care to be for ever
conceal’d from those on whom they bestow’d their
Benefits, and consequently that Pride has no hand in
spurring Man on to the highest pitch of Self-denial.
In answer to this I say, that it is impossible to
judge of a Man’s Performance, unless we are throughly
acquainted with the Principle and Motive from which he
acts. Pity, tho’ it is the most gentle and the least
mischievous of all our Passions, is yet as much a
Frailty of our Nature, as Anger, Pride, or Fear. The
weakest Minds have generally the greatest Share of it,
for which Reason none are more Compassionate than
Women and Children. It must be own’d, that of all our
Weaknesses it is the most amiable, and bears the
greatest Resemblance to Virtue; nay, without a
considerable mixture of it the Society could hardly
subsist: But as it is an Impulse of Nature, that
consults neither the publick Interest nor our own
Reason, it may produce Evil as well as Good. It has
help’d to destroy the Honour of Virgins, and corrupted
the Integrity of Judges; and whoever acts from it as a
Principle, what good soever he may bring to the
Society, has nothing to boast of but that he has
indulged a Passion that has happened to be beneficial
to the Publick. There is no Merit in saving an
innocent Babe ready to drop into the Fire: The Action
is neither good nor bad, and what Benefit soever the
Infant received, we only obliged our selves; for to
have seen it fall, and not strove to hinder it, would
have caused a Pain, which Self-preservation compell’d
us to prevent: Nor has a rich Prodigal, that happens
to be of a commiserating Temper, and loves to gratify
his Passions, greater Virtue to boast of when he
relieves an Object of Compassion with what to himself
is a Trifle.
But such Men, as without complying with any Weakness
of their own, can part from what they value
themselves, and, from no other Motive but their Love
to Goodness, perform a worthy Action in Silence: Such
Men, I confess, have acquir’d more refin’d Notions of
Virtue than those I have hitherto spoke of; yet even
in these (with which the World has yet never swarm’d)
we may discover no small Symptoms of Pride, and the
humblest Man alive must confess, that the Reward of a
Virtuous Action, which is the Satisfaction that ensues
upon it, consists in a certain Pleasure he procures to
himself by Contemplating on his own Worth: Which
Pleasure, together with the Occasion of it, are as
certain Signs of Pride, as looking Pale and Trembling
at any imminent Danger, are the Symptoms of Fear.
If the too scrupulous Reader should at first View
condemn these Notions concerning the Origin of Moral
Virtue, and think them perhaps offensive to
Christianity, I hope he’ll forbear his Censures, when
he shall consider, that nothing can render the
unsearchable depth of the Divine Wisdom
more conspicuous, than that Man, whom
Providence had designed for Society, should not only
by his own Frailties and Imperfections be led into the
Road to Temporal Happiness, but likewise receive, from
a seeming Necessity of Natural Causes, a Tincture of
that Knowledge, in which he was afterwards to be made
perfect by the True Religion, to his Eternal Welfare.