Pagina 166 de 1391

First duty, then happiness, is the natural order of our moral

ideas. The utilitarian principle is valuable as a corrective of

error, and shows to us a side of ethics which is apt to be

neglected. It may be admitted further that right and utility are

co-extensive, and that he who makes the happiness of mankind his

object has one of the highest and noblest motives of human

action. But utility is not the historical basis of morality; nor

the aspect in which moral and religious ideas commonly occur to

the mind. The greatest happiness of all is, as we believe, the

far-off result of the divine government of the universe. The

greatest happiness of the individual is certainly to be found in

a life of virtue and goodness. But we seem to be more assured of

a law of right than we can be of a divine purpose, that 'all

mankind should be saved;' and we infer the one from the other.