5523. MORALITY, Foundations of.—
It
is really curious that on a question so fundamental,
such a variety of opinions should have
prevailed among men, and those, too, of the
most exemplary virtue and first order of understanding.
It shows how necessary was the
care of the Creator in making the moral principle
so much a part of our constitution as that
no errors of reasoning or of speculation might
lead us astray from its observance in practice.
Of all the theories on this question, the most
whimsical seems to have been that of Wollaston,
who considers truth as the foundation of
morality. The thief who steals your guinea
does wrong only inasmuch as he acts a lie in
using your guinea as if it were his own. Truth
is certainly a branch of morality, and a very
important one to society. But presented as its
foundation, it is as if a tree taken up by the
roots, had its stem reversed in the air, and one
of its branches planted in the ground.—
To Thomas Law. Washington ed. vi, 348.
(M.
1814)
