PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

32 The A{~ral Serut.
and from a habit of approving such and such actions,
inculcated in eady youth, and receiving, as men
grow up, continual accessions of strengih and vigor,
from cen iure and encouragement, from the bocks
they read, tbeconversations they hear, the current
application of epitheL~, the general tum of language,
and the various other c;;.use~, by which it universally
comes to pass, that a society of men, touched in
the feeblest degree with the same passion, soon com ..
municate to one anotl~er a gr~t degree of it. *
This is the case ,,·ith mc'st of us at present; and is
the cause also, that the precess oj association, described
in the last paragraph but one, is linle now either perceived
or wanted.
Amongst the causes assigned fer the continuance
and diffusion of the same moral sentiments amongst
IDankind, \ve have mentioned imitation.
1ne efficacy
of this principle is most observable in children;
indeed, if there be any thing in them which deserves
the name of an instinct, it is their propensity to imitation.
Now there is nothing which chi!drert imitate or apply
more readily than expressions of affection and
aversion, of approbation, hatred, l-eselltment, and the
like; and when these passions and expressions are
once connected, which they soon will be by the same
association which unite~ \l7ords with their ideas, the
passion will foHow the expreEsion, and attach upon
the object to which the child has been accustomed to
apply the epithet. In a word, when almost every
thinL else is learned by imitation, can we wonder to
find [he same cause concerned in the generation of
our moral sentilnents ?
." From instan~es of popular tumults, seditions, factions, panic" ,.Jnd of
all passiuns, which are shared with a r.1ultitude, we .. lay learn the:J.~duence
of society in exciting and S1JPPl,:!~llg any emotion; while the IT.ost ungov ..
ernable disorders are raised \ve find bv that means, from the slightest and
nlost frivolous occasions. He must bC more or iess than man, wl.o kindles
not in the comm~ll bJazc. What wonder, then .. that mora) senrinlent8 ar~
foun.d of such influence in life, though springing from principles, wh?ch may
appear, at first Sight, somewhat small and de~icatc 1"
HI/nrc's 11''iui,~y r,r;",c""ing tIle Principles of ll!(Jrais, Sect. IX. /I. :J2G.