We do not charge Dr. Wayland with being the author of this new doctrine
that man possesses an independent and distinct power, faculty, or sense,
by the exercise of which he perceives right and wrong, or, in other
words, the moral quality of the actions of men, and upon which
perception he may rest with safety, as to its accuracy and truthfulness;
for the same doctrine has been suggested by greater men than Dr.
Wayland, long ago. Lord Shaftesbury, Dr. Hutchinson, and Dr. Reid have
laid the foundation; the latter of whom says, (p. 242,) “The testimony
of our moral faculty, like that of the external senses, is the testimony
of nature, and we have the same reason to rely upon it.“ Again: “As we
rely upon the clear and distinct testimony of our eyes, concerning the
figures and colours of bodies about us, we have the same reason, with
security, to rely upon the clear and unbiassed testimony of our
conscience with regard to what we ought or ought not to do.”
* * * * *
Such sentiments may seem to some to be deducible from an indistinct and
indefinite reference to our judgment after the understanding has been
improved by moral culture, when such judgment, by a mere looseness of
language, is sometimes described as if the writers confounded it with
the state of mind and moral perfectibility produced by the reception of
the Holy Ghost. Thus, Archbishop Secker, in his Fourth Lecture on the
Catechism, says:
“How shall all persons know what they are taught to believe is really
true?
“_Answer._ The greater part of it, when it is once duly proposed to
them, they may perceive to be so by the light of their own reason and
conscience.”
Now it is evident that the bishop’s answer is predicated upon the
supposition that the understanding has been cultivated in conformity to
the principles of moral truth.
But, from such hasty, perhaps thoughtless, snatches of speculation,
occasionally found in some few of the older metaphysical writers, our
author and his co-associates in this belief have drawn their materials,
remodelled the parts, and reared, even as to heaven, a lofty structure
upon a doubtful, tottering base, bringing untold social and political
evils upon society, and spiritual death, in its fall, to all who shelter
under it. But for the good of the world, in opposition to such a
doctrine, truth has erected her column of solid masonry, against which
the fanaticism and sophistry of these builders can only, like successive
drops of water, carry down the walls some useless portions of the
cement.
We repeat, how tottering must be the argument founded upon analogy where
there is no relation! We all agree that the senses make truthful
representations: all see, smell, and taste alike; vinegar will be sour
to the savage, as well as the savant. But is their judgment the same
about the moral qualities of actions? What says this moral sense, this
conscience, in the savage, who is taught to steal from his friend and
torture his enemy? Does the reverend doctor think his moral sense will
dictate the same conclusion? What right has he, then, to say, it is the
voice of nature—of God? Does he fail to perceive that the moral quality
of actions is distinguished by man in conformity to his experience, his
training, his education?
We see that men often differ about the moral quality of an action. It
might be that no two men would have the same idea about the moral
quality of a particular action. Would the conscience, this moral sense,
or faculty, in such case, be right in each one? If not, who is to
determine which is right and which is wrong? And further, of what use to
man can be this distinct, independent, and unchangeably truthful power,
which, nevertheless, brings him no certainty? But has the mind of man
ever found out that God has overdone, or unnecessarily done, any thing?
Will these theorists reflect, that, in case God had seen fit to bestow
such a sense on man, inspiration would have been useless, and the Bible
not wanted? And the condition of man upon the earth would be wholly
stationary instead of progressive. And permit us to inquire, whether
this notion of theirs is the reason why some of these theorists speak so
rashly, we might say blasphemously, of that sacred volume, upon the
condition which they dictate?
The truth is, we have no such infallible guide. The idea of right and
wrong, either theologically or physically considered, is always fixed
through an exertion of the powers of the understanding. We have no
instinctive power reaching the case. Our judgment, our feelings are
often unstable, irregular, and sometimes antagonistic. In abstruse
cases, very often we cannot even satisfy ourselves what is right and
will it be said that we do not often fail to see the object, design, and
law of God touching a case?
On every decision on a question of right or wrong, a train of mental
action is called into operation, comparing the ideas already in the mind
with the facts of the case under review, and noting the similarity of
these facts to our idea of right, or whether the facts conform to our
idea of wrong. This decision we call judgment: but when the decision
reaches to the question of right or wrong, touching our own conduct
only, logicians have agreed to call it conscience; not a distinct action
from judgment—much less a distinct faculty; and by no means carrying
with it more proof of accuracy and correctness than is our judgment
about any other matter, where the ideas and facts are equally manifest
and accurately presented.
There is another consideration which to us gives proof that the
conscience or moral sense is not an independent faculty of the mind, nor
to be relied on at all as infallible. Many of us have noticed the
changes that imperceptibly come over our moral feelings, and judgment of
right and wrong, conscience or moral sense, through the influences of
association and habit. Our affluent neighbour, who manifests to others
many virtues and some follies, our mind, by association and habit,
regards as a perfect model of human greatness and perfection. Thus a
corrupt government soon surveys a corrupt people; and a somewhat
licentious, but talented and accomplished clergyman, soon finds his
hearers in fashion. Nor is it unfrequent, that which should stigmatize a
father is beheld with admiration by the son. Thus wealth, to most, is
desirable, but its desirability has been created by association; we
recollect the objects it enables us to command, often the objects of our
principal pursuit. The quality the mind associates with these
gratifications, it eventually associates with that which procures them.
Thus, we perceive, the mind is able to form a moral estimate upon
considerations wholly artificial, which could never happen in case the
moral sense was independent, and a distinct faculty teaching us
infallible truth.
But how are we to account for the fact that some of the finest
intellects, as well as the most learned men, have fallen into this most
dangerous error? It should be a subject of deep thought!
We discover, in some men of the highest order of intellects, the power
of arriving, as it were instantaneously, at a conclusion, giving it the
appearance of being intuitive, rather than the result of what would be,
when analyzed, a long chain of reasoning. Thus, the instant and happy
thought often springing to the mind when in some sudden or unforeseen
difficulty. The nice and instant perception, often displayed by medical
men, of the condition of the patient, is an example; and hence the
astonishing accuracy of judgment, sometimes noticed in the military
commander, from a mere glance of the eye.
In such cases the mind is often not conscious of any mental action; and
others, who observe these facts, are led, sometimes, to confound what,
in such cases, is a deductive judgment, with intuitiveness. The
judgment, thus formed without any perceptible succession of thought, is
merely the result of acquirement from long experience and habits of
active ratiocination. Some few instances of this unconscious and rapid
thought have been exemplified by mathematicians, when the calculator
could give no account how he arrived at the conclusion. Will any one
claim that they abstract their answers from the most abstruse
propositions intuitively, or by instinct, or by any new and distinct
faculty of the mind? This habit of mind is as applicable to morals as to
any thing else. But in mathematics the data are everywhere the same;
whereas in morals the data are as different among men as are their
conditions of life; because our ideas of right and wrong, existing in
the mind before the judgment is formed on the case to be considered,
were introduced by the aid of the senses, through the medium of
experience and education; and it is, therefore, quite obvious that the
idea of right in one man may be quite like the idea of wrong in another.
But it remains to show the fallacy of the argument by which Dr. Wayland
arrives at his conclusion. Let us examine the paragraph quoted, and sift
from verbiage the naked points of the argument:
“We do actually observe a moral quality in the actions of men.”
“Do we perceive this quality of actions by a single faculty, or a
combination of faculties? This notion” (the perception of the moral
quality of an action) “is, in its nature, simple and ultimate, and
distinct from every other notion.”
“We have a distinct faculty to make us acquainted with the existence of
all other distinct qualities.” “Therefore, it is self-evident that this
is a separate and distinct faculty.”
The syllogism is defective because the idea of right or wrong is not
simple nor ultimate, but complex, and ever subject to change from the
influence of any new light presented to the mind. Nor is it true that we
possess a distinct faculty to make us acquainted with each distinct
quality; for, if so, the mind would be merely a very large bundle of
faculties; and we should neither possess nor stand in need of any
reasoning powers whatever, because the naked truth about every thing
would always stand revealed before us by these faculties; which, we
think, is not the fact.
In syllogistic argument, the first principles must be something that
cannot be otherwise—unalterable—an eternal truth; “because these
qualities cannot belong to the conclusion unless they belong to the
premises, which are its causes.”
The syllogism will then stand thus:
It is not true our notion, or idea, of the moral quality of an action
“is simple and ultimate, and distinct from any other idea or notion:”
It is not true that we have a distinct faculty to make us acquainted
with the existence of all other distinct qualities:
Therefore, it is not true, nor self-evident, that we perceive the moral
qualities of an action, or that we have the idea or notion of it, by the
aid of a single distinct and separate faculty.
The “notion” advanced by Dr. Wayland, on this subject, appears to us so
strange, that it would be difficult to conceive it to have been issued
or promulgated by a schoolman, did we not know how often men, led by
passion, some by prejudice, argue from false premises to which they take
no heed, or, from a want of information, honestly mistake for truths.
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