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value of moral science , the author proceeds to distribute his subject under three principal divisions , in the first h f tih $$ \ he proposes to treat of those more general questions relating to the origin of the moral sense , —the nature , definition
and criterion of virtue , an 3 the obligation to practise it , which constitute what may be called the bkectrbtical department Of ethics ; in the second , under the title of Practical Morality , he gtves a detailed view of particular duties ; in the third , he treats of the means of cultivating and improving the moral principle . To this last he has given the title of Disdulinaru Morality . r *
Previous to the discussion of the first of the above questions , namely , that relating to the moral sense , Mr . Jevons enters much at large into an investigation of Che nature of the affections hi general ; rightly conceiving that tttey are so analogous in their origin , and so intimately connected together , as to render it difficult to carry on the analysis of any one successfully , without a refet ^ oe to the rest . A knowledge of the nature and laws of the affections i $ also ! necessary ' to the practical moralist , since otherwise it seems scarcely
pps ^ ble foUay down judicious rules for their government and directio n * In £ frh 3 $ fi £ this analysis , he proceeds in a great measure on the Hartleyan principle of association , though without adopting muck of the peculiar phraseofogf by which that eminent philosopher is distinguished , and which has perhaps deterred from the study of his writings many of those in whose estimation elegance of expression is of more value than accuracy of thought . According to this view of the origin of mind and its affections , all our intellectual pleasures and pains are ultimately deducible from those of the body . The human infant , in the first instance , is a mere animated machine , a
creatiire of matter and sense , alive to no feelings but those which result from present impressions . All his pleasures , and consequently , for a while , all his desires , have a reference solely to bodily gratifications , an < I terminate m self . Itii not long , however , that he continues in this stater of insulation . From the first moment of his existence , he is dependent on the unceasing care and attention of others ; the pleasurable emotions , thefefbire , which arfe excited by the supply of his various wants , are associated with th ^ idea of those about
him , and thus ate graduall y unfolded the germs of the social and benevolent affections . By the operation of the same principle the intellectual faculties also are successively brought into being . Even the Use of the senses themselves implies the exercise of the nascent powers of thfc understanding . " The process of learning- to see is one which requires the constant exerqise of memory and judgment ; for the perceptions of distance , bulk , and tangible properties by the eye , are not , as is now universally acknowledged , the original perceptions of that sense , but the associated knowledge which it has acquired
under flie tuition of Touch . The new-born infant , though endowed * witn all the otfdtos of sense , is incapable even of that simplest excitement wfticfc arises frtmi tnte observation of external objects . We are apt to expect that the little stranger , surrounded as he is by so many novel objects , should feel immediate wonder and interest in all that he beholds . But we forget that his Attention
has not yet extended beyond his more acute and immediate feetingp ; ' thut the flen&atiiotts conveyed b y his eye and ear are all as yet confused ana indistinct ; auid tjiatjJLjt ; i # only by Aow degrees that he even learns to recqgnise < l * y n * # fcns ofj . ^ Ofje ^ ^ nsa ^ ona the objeqts of nis earliest and moat press ing wvn ^ . ( The # efy wWQK * jtfeerefor ^ of observing external objects , implies ) a certain deveiop'lm ^ rit ; or mind , and those pleasures of excitement which haye Been already mAtioned , partake as much of the nature of mental as of sensible pleasures . Indeed , th « mental faculties , in their first exerciae « , ate * nbthing morfe tfean eertMte midm ^ i * n ^ e »^ ^ 6 ^ Hs ^ sen ^ lion r ad ^ ven % hM ; t ! w $ y « fe em-
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Review . —Jevons ?* Systematic Morality * 8 $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1827, page 891, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1803/page/35/
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