It will readily be perceived, that each of these forms is really
identical with that above announced and illustrated. It is only when we
are conscious of the supreme control of the intention, to esteem and
treat all persons and interests according to their intrinsic and
relative importance, from respect to the idea of duty, that, in
conformity with the principle as announced by Kant, our maxim of Will
might become law in a system of universal legislation. When we are
conscious of the control of such an intention, it is impossible for us
not to affirm, according to the principle, as announced by Cousin, that
all Intelligents are bound always to be under the control of the same
intention. Two or three suggestions will close what I have to say on
this point.
COMMON MISTAKE.
1. We notice the fundamental mistake of many philosophers and divines in
treating of moral exercises, or states of mind. Such exercises are very
commonly represented as consisting wholly in excited states of the
Sensibility. Thus Dr. Brown represents all moral exercises and states as
consisting in emotions of a given character. One of the most
distinguished Professors of Theology in this country laid down this
proposition, as the basis of a course of lectures on Moral Philosophy,
that "everything right or wrong in a moral agent, consists exclusively
of right or wrong _feelings_"--feelings as distinguished from volitions
as phenomena of Will. Now precisely the reverse of the above proposition
is true, to wit: that _nothing_ right or wrong, in a moral agent,
consists in any states of the Sensibility irrespective of the action of
the Will. Who would dare to say, when he has particular emotions,
desires, or involuntary feelings, that the Moral law has no further
claim upon him, that all its demands are fully met in those feelings?
Who would dare to affirm, when he has any particular emotions, that all
moral agents in existence are bound to have those identical feelings? If
the demands of the Moral law are fully met in any states of the
Sensibility--which would be true, if everything right or wrong, in moral
agents, consists of right or wrong feelings--then all moral agents, at
all times, and under all circumstances, are bound to have these same
feelings. For what the law demands, at one time, it demands at all
times. All the foundations of moral obligation are swept away by the
theory under consideration.
LOVE AS REQUIRED BY THE MORAL LAW.
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