History of moral science.

  • Blakey, Robert, 1795-1878.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of moral science. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    merit, and social propensities. Were this not the case, nothing but confusion and disorder would be perceptible in human affairs ; no such thing- as com- fort and sociality could be found, nor could society itself exist for a single day, if submitted to the in- fluence of principles diametrically opposite to those by which it is at present regulated and upheld. How lamentable would it be, for example, for a child of five or six years old to be possessed of a strong desire of power and dominion ; an ardent desire to benefit mankind by his labours, when he is destitute of strength sufiicient to take care of himself; without knowledge, prudence, foresight, and many other moral and mental qualifications, which are the fruits only of his riper years and understanding, and are necessary for a man's advancement in honourable distinction in society! Yet such gnaw- ing desires, with impotence of means, would every way prevail amongst mankind, were their passions not developed and regulated by that happy economy and consummate wisdom we see around us on every side. Man, as has frequently been remarked, comes into the world the most helpless and pitiful of all creatures. But tender and delicate as his infant years are, and entirely destitute of the means of