208 ERROR MINGLED WITH TRUTH. PATH AND NO PATH. To say there is no path, because we have often got into the wrong path, puts an end to all other knowledge as well as to this. ERROR MINGLED WITH TRUTH. ERRORS, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled with them; it is only from this alliance. that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation: from pure extravagance, and genuine, unmingled falsehood, the world never has, and never can sustain any mischief. THE GREAT STREAM OF NATURE. IF you will build an error upon some foundation of truth, you may effect your object; you may divert a little rivulet from the great stream of nature, and train it cautiously, and obliquely, away; but if you place yourself in the very depth of her almighty channel, and combat with her eternal streams, you will be swept off without ruffling the smoothness, or impeding the vigour, of her course. NO REAL RESULTS OF SCEPTICISM. BISHOP BERKELEY destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained after his time, but mind; which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr. Hume in 1737:-so that, with all the tendency to de *This and the following passages are from the Lectures on "Moral Philosophy," delivered by Mr. Sydney Smith at the Royal Institution in 1804, 1805, and 1806. THE MORAL EVIDENCE OF A CREATOR. 209 stroy, there remains nothing left for destruction: but I would fain ask if there be any one human being, from the days of Protagoras the Abderite to this present hour, who was ever for a single instant a convert to these subtle and ingenious follies? Is there any one out of Bedlam who doubts of the existence of matter? who doubts of his own personal identity? or of his consciousness? or of the general credibility of memory? Men talk on such subjects from ostentation, or because such wire-drawn speculations are an agreeable exercise to them; but they are perpetually recalled by the necessary business and the inevitable feelings of life to sound and sober opinions on these subjects. THE MORAL EVIDENCE OF A CREATOR. THE school of natural religion is the contemplation of nature; the ancient anatomist who was an atheist, was converted by the study of the human body: he thought it impossible that so many admirable contrivances should exist, without an intelligent cause;—and if men can become religious from looking at an entrail, or a nerve, can they be taught atheism from analysing the structure of the human mind? Are not the affections and passions which shake the very entrails of man, and the thoughts and feelings which dart along those nerves, more indicative of a God than the vile perishing instruments themselves? Can you remember the nourishment which springs up in the breast of a mother, and forget the feelings which spring up in her heart? If God made the blood of man, did he not make that feeling, which summons the blood to his face, and makes it the sign of guilt and of shame? You may show me a human hand, expatiate upon the singular contrivance of its sinews, and Р 210 NO GENERAL DISCOVERIES IN MORAL PHILOSOPHY. bones; how admirable, how useful, for all the purposes of grasp, and flexure: I will show you, in return, the mind, receiving her tribute from the senses;-comparing, reflecting, compounding, dividing, abstracting;-the passions soothing, aspiring, exciting, till the whole world falls under the dominion of man; evincing that in his mind the Creator has reared up the noblest emblem of his wisdom, and his power. The philosophy of the human mind is no school for infidelity, but it excites the warmest feelings of piety, and defends them with the soundest reason. NO GENERAL DISCOVERIES IN MORAL PHILOSOPHY. SOME very considerable men are accustomed to hold very strong and sanguine language respecting the important discoveries which are to be made in Moral Philosophy, from a close attention to facts; and by that method of induction which has been so invaluably employed in Natural Philosophy: but then this appears to be the difference;-that Natural Philosophy is directed to subjects with which we are little or imperfectly acquainted; Moral Philosophy investigates faculties we have always exercised, and passions we have always felt. Chemistry, for instance, is perpetually bringing to light fresh existences; four or five new metals have been discovered within as many years, of the existence of which no human being could have had any suspicion, but no man, that I know of, pretends to discover four or five new passions, neither can anything very new be discovered of those passions and faculties with which mankind are already familiar. We are, in natural philosophy, perpetually making discoveries of new properties in bodies, with whose existence we have been acquainted for THE SCOPE OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 211 centuries: Sir James Hall has just discovered that lime can be melted by carbonic acid ;-but who hopes that he can discover any new flux for avarice? or any improved method of judging, and comparing? We have had no occasion to busy ourselves with the chromian or Titanian metal; but we have commonly employed our minds for twenty or thirty years, before we begin to speculate upon them. THE TRUE RANGE OF DISCOVERY. I HAVE said that no practical discoveries can be made in Moral Philosophy, because I think the word discovery implies so much originality, and novelty, that I can hardly suppose they will be met with in a subject with which mankind are so familiar. But then opinions may be discoveries to the individual, which are not discoveries to the world at large. THE SCOPE OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. MORAL Philosophy teaches, for the conduct of the understanding, a variety of delicate rules which can result only from such sort of meditation; and it gradually subjects the most impetuous feelings to patient examination and wise control: it inures the youthful mind to intellectual difficulty, and to enterprise in thinking; and makes it as keen as an eagle, and as unwearied as the wing of an angel. In looking round the region of spirit, from the mind of the brute and the reptile, to the sublimest exertions of the human understanding, this philosophy lays deep the foundations of a fervent and grateful piety, for those intellectual riches which have been dealt out to us with no scanty measure. With sensation alone, we might have possessed the earth, as it 212 PHILOSOPHY OF SOCRATES. is possessed by the lowest order of beings: but we have talents which bend all the laws of nature to our service; memory for the past, providence for the future,-senses which mingle pleasure with intelligence, the surprise of novelty, the boundless energy of imagination, accuracy in comparing, and severity in judging; an original affection, which binds us together in society; a swiftness to pity; a fear of shame; a love of esteem; a detestation of all that is cruel, mean, and unjust. All these things Moral Philosophy observes, and, observing, adores the Being from whence they proceed. PHILOSOPHY OF SOCRATES. THE morality of Socrates was reared upon the basis of religion. The principles of virtuous conduct which are common to all mankind, are, according to this wise and good man, laws of God; and the argument by which he supports this opinion is, that no man departs from these principles with impunity. "It is frequently possible," says he, “for men to screen themselves from the penalty of human laws, but no man can be unjust or ungrateful without suffering for his crime-hence I conclude that these laws must have proceeded from a more excellent legislator than man." Socrates taught that true felicity is not to be derived from external possessions, but from wisdom; which consists in the knowledge and practice of virtue ;- -that the cultivation of virtuous manners is necessarily attended with pleasure as well as profit; that the honest man alone is happy; and that it is absurd to attempt to separate things which are in their nature so united as virtue and interest. Socrates was, in truth, not very fond of subtle and refined speculations; and upon the intellectual part of our |