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    and he imagines that Candide was written to support the doctrines which are put into the mouth of Pangloss ! ( p . 289 . ) At the conclusion of his abstract of the opinions of previous authors , which , it is but justice to say , is in general much fairer , and even more intelligent , than might be supposed from the specimens which we have given , Mr . Blakey sums up the result of the examination in the following words :

    * All the systems we have examined may , I conceive , be referred to six distinct heads . 1 st . The eternal and immutable nature of all moral distinctions . 2 nd . That utility , public or private , is the foundation of moral obligation . 3 rd . That all morality is founded upon the will of God . 4 th . That a moral sense , feeling , or emotion , is the ground of virtue . 5 th . That it is by supposing ourselves in the situation of others , or by a species of sympathetic mechanism , that we derive our notions of good and evil . And 6 th , the doctrine of vibrations , * and the association of ideas . *—p . 317 .

    After declaring that ' there are none of these different systems that are not in some degree founded on truth , ' and that c we cannot resolve all the moral feelings and habits of our nature into one general principle , ' he assigns , nevertheless , his reasons for preferring to all the other theories the doctrine , * that virtue depends upon the will of God / as made known by revelation . Mr . Blakey ' s enumeration is illogical : it confounds two distinct , though nearly connected , questions ; the standard or test of moral obligation , and the origin of our moral sentiments . It is one question what rule we ought to obey , and why ; another question how our feelings of approbation and disapprobation actually originate . The former is the fundamental question ol * practical morals ; the latter is a problem in mental philosophy . Adam Smith ' s doctrine of sympathy which stands fifth , and the doctrine of association -which stands sixth in Mr . Blakey ' s list , are theories respecting the nature and origin of our feelings of morality . His second and third are theories respecting the rule or laiv by which we ought to guide our conduct . His first and fourth involve , or maybe so understood as to involve , both considerations .

    These several theories , therefore , are not exclusive of one another . It is possible , for instance , to hold with Hartley ,, that our feelings of morality originate in association , and with Bentharn that our conduct , in all things which depend on our will , and among the rest , in the cultivation of those very feelings , should be guided by utility ; or with our author , that the will of God is itself the foundation of the obligations of virtue . David Hume seems to have combined the recognition of utility as the standard or test of morality , with the belief of a moral sense , independent of association . Paley has no theory respecting the nature of moral * The doctrine of vibrations , a mere physiological hypothesis , which has no connexion at all with Hartley ' s theory of association , ought not to have been , included id mi enumeiation of theories of motals .

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    666 Blakey s History of Moral Science .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1833, page 666, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2624/page/6/