Tradition : Principally with Reference to Mythology and the

THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 13
outward expression of this inward feeling in maxims,
precepts, and laws, if not also reminiscences of primeval
revelations and divine commands.
It will be true, therefore, to say, without touching the
deeper question of the foundation of morals, that there
has been a tradition of morals which cannot but have
had its influence in all ages upon the " social feelings"
in which, according to the Pall Mall Gazette, " it will
always be necessary to lay the basis of conscience."
Now is this tradition of morals identical with utilitarian
precept? If the tradition of morals is identical with
" the greatest happiness principle," then that principle
was no discoverjr of Bentham's,10 neither can Benthamism
be regarded as " the new application of an old principle."
Bentham in that case simply informed mankind that
they had been talking prose all their lives without knowing
it! Benthamism, however, in point of fact, is felt
as a new principle precisely in so far as it discards the
old morality. The question which I ask is, how does it
account for these old notions of morality obtaining among
10 Bentham speaks of his enunciation of "the greatest happiness principle"
in the following terms:-"Throughout the whole horizon of
morals and of politics, the consequences were glorious and vast. It might
be said without danger of exaggeration, that they who sat in darkness had
seen a great light." "With reference to this Lord Macaulay says,
" We
blamed the utilitarians for claiming the credit of a discovery, when they
had merely stolen that morality (the morality of the gospel) and spoiled
it in the stealing. They have taken the precept of Christ and left the
motive, and they demand the praise of a most wonderful and beneficial
invention, when all they have done has been to make a most useful
maxim useless by separating it from its sanction. On religious principles
it is true that every individual will best promote his own happiness by
promoting the happiness of others. But if religious considerations be left
out of the question it is not true. If we do not reason on the supposition
of a future state, where is the motive ? If we do reason on that supposi-
tion, where is the discovery? "-Vide Lord Macaulay s Essays on
" West-
minster Reviewer* Defence of Mill" and " The Utilitarian Theory of
Government" in Lord Macaulay's "Miscellaneous Writings"