5524. MORALITY, Foundations of.—[continued].
Some have made the
love of God the foundation of morality. This,
too, is but a branch of our moral duties, which
are generally divided into duties to God and
duties to man. If we did a good act merely
from the love of God and a belief that it is
pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of
the atheist? It is idle to say, as some do, that
no such Being exists. We have the same evidence
of the fact as of most of those we act on,
to wit their own affirmations, and their reasonings
in support of them. I have observed,
indeed, generally that while in Protestant countries
the defections from the Platonic Christianity
of the priests is to Deism, in Catholic
countries they are to Atheism. Diderot,
D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Condorcet, are known
to have been among the most virtuous of men.
Their virtue, then, must have had some other
foundation than the love of God.—
To Thomas Law. Washington ed. vi, 348.
(M.
1814)
