I What is true virtue?

Virtue is beauty/excellence
Not inanimate beauties
Not men's physical beauty
Not intellectual excellence
But moral qualities, worthy of praise as opposed to blame
Coming from disposition and will a.k.a. heart
Virtue is beautiful qualities and actions of the heart
False virtues appear beautiful until examined
e.g. if they cause some beauty but more distortion
Particular beauty is agreeable to a limited subset of surroundings
e.g. a chord, not in key with the rest of the tune
General beauty is agreeable in all its tendencies to all the universe
True virtue is general beauty from the heart
True virtue is benevolence to being in general
True virtue is consent and propensity of the heart to the greatest good will
Because beauty requires consent and agreement
And every being is but a part of the great system of existence
The great whole of which is more general than any man
Thus any agreement in a limited sphere is not necessarily true virtue
Unless it tends to union with the great system
Although it may be good and beautiful in a limited sense
True virtue is love to being in general
Not loving the universal system directly
But a disposition to love the universal system
Producing love to individuals as they appear
True virtue is a disposition to love everyone you meet
Love to intelligent individuals, not inanimate objects
Love of benevolence means desiring and rejoicing in others well-being
Not based on beauty of that other one
As Gods benevolence preceded and caused our beauty
Thus Gods virtue includes love to all potential being
Love of complacence means delight in others (pre-existing) beauty
This cannot be virtue as it would produce a spiral
i.e. your virtue/beauty depends on a prior virtue
Virtue cant primarily be called out by prior virtue
Virtue cant primarily consist in gratitude for anothers virtue
True virtue is love of existence, not dependent on any attribute
Its object is the greatest good of the collective existence
i.e. the good of every individual consistent with the collective good
any enemy to collective existence is opposed by true virtue
It has more love for stronger intellects and wills as higher beings
Virtue is secondarily a love of virtue (by mutual attraction)
1. This is a consequence of true virtue and produces the same results
Seeking good of others, you approve the same impulse in another
2. This is what spiritual beauty consists in (including its exercise)

 All true virtue consists in love of being and the exercise thereof
3. This is beautiful precisely because it implies union with being in general
This is the primary beauty of any virtue (there is a secondary beauty)
4. This love of virtue is the primary ground of love of complacence.
The beloveds love for us is only the secondary ground of this love.
5. The attractiveness of the virtuous other is proportional to
his benevolence times his greatness
6. Love of virtue only exists in the virtuous
II True virtue chiefly consists in love to God
Considering both its primary and secondary grounds
Since God has infinitely the greatest being and virtue
But we cant profit God shouldnt virtue serve fellow-creatures?
1. Benevolence not only seeks happiness of object, it rejoices in it
2. We cant give anything to God which isnt his, but we can promote his
glory
If benevolence is prohibited by inability to profit,
is gratitude prohibited by inability to requite?
Some writers consider benevolence to creation more than to God
But if true virtue consists partly in respect to God that it consists
chiefly in it
In fact, no love to created beings can be true virtue without a supreme
love to God
Suppose someone loves another but not the great system
This is admittedly not true virtue if the other is oneself
Even if it is another, that one falls infinitely short of the great
system
1. Such sets the person against the great system
As is the case with selfishness (conflict of interest)
Making it directly contrary to the essential nature of true virtue
The chief part of virtue is its favoring being in general
2. Such has a positive tendency to enmity to being in general
By setting up a private affection above being in general
As worshipping an idol produces enmity against Gods law
3. Such would itself in its nature become an opposition to true
virtue
By subjugating being in general (the supreme value) to another
Thus divine virtue also must consist primarily in love to himself
I.e. the infinitely strong propensity in the trinity to one another
Thus Gods goodness and love to creation is derived from and subordinate
to his self love
Virtuous love to created beings is dependent of and derived from love to God
Since such love is virtuous iff it arises from a disposition to love God
supremely
Since all particular loves arising from benevolence to being in general
are virtuous

III

And benevolence to being in general is the same as a disposition to

love God supremely
However, this connection and dependence need not be conscious for such
to be virtuous
Our love to created beings is evidenced to be derived from our love to God
by:
- the agreeableness of our love to Gods end in creation
- the similarity in the manner of our loving to Gods manner toward
creation
Respecting the creatures happiness subordinate to himself
Since the true virtue of created beings is:
- their highest excellence,
- their true goodness, and
- that by which they are especially agreeable to the end of their
Creator
Since the true goodness of a thing is its fitness towards its end
And the end of moral beings is the end for which God created the world
Since the moral world is the end of the rest of the world
: True virtue seeks above all things the glory of God, consisting in:
- the expression of Gods perfections in their proper effects
- the manifestation of Gods glory to created understandings
- the communication of the infinite fullness of God to the creature
- the creatures highest esteem of, love to, and joy in God
- and the proper exercises and expressions of these
Love of created beings seeks their knowledge and union with God
True virtue = grace = holiness = goodness = excellence
Corollary: supreme love to God is essential to true virtue
And any contradictory philosophy is defective
Nothing is true virtue in which God is not the first and the last
Or which is not founded on apprehending and loving Gods supreme
glory
There are other things that are erroneously confounded with true virtue
There is a secondary beauty, the image or resemblance of unity with all being
This is agreement of separate things in form or end
called regularity, order, harmony, uniformity, symmetry, or proportion
As in a circle, square, chess board, brocade, or melody
A.k.a. uniformity in variety; the more parts the better
This is the same as the visible fitness of a thing to its design and use
Since interrelationships contribute to this type of beauty
By suggesting similar nearby objects to the mind
And means and the intended effect are related to each other
So there is double beauty all agree to their common end and to each
other
God made this agreement beautiful because it is an image of true beauty
Since in true beauty also diverse minds are united into one
And it pleases God to create inferior things with some analogy to superior

 This resemblance is why beauty in nature disposes us for spiritual beauty

There are two types of agreement or consent between things:
(1) Cordial agreement is concord of mind and heart (and is the source of
true beauty)
(2) Natural agreement is uniformity in unconscious form (secondary
beauty)
1. Men find natural agreement beautiful by God-given instinct
Not because they recognize its resemblance to true beauty, as God
does
(1) As men often appreciate such beauty while ignorant of the
agreement
E.g. music based on vibrations in harmony, or features of a face
in proportion
Whereas unity is what makes true beauty
(2) God established this instinct because of the resemblance
But man appreciates the beauty without knowledge of this
2. This beauty is more affecting the more significant its components
3. The uniformity or deformity must be among related objects
4. This beauty is present in immaterial things too
As the order of society is beautiful when each rank is in its fit place
It should be even more affecting in spiritual things if equally
perceived
Wisdom is a consistent tendency to one general purpose
Justice is the harmonious correspondence of different related
acts
He who does evil should receive proportionate evil back
From the one whose business it is to act on behalf of the
injured
He who opposes the general system should be opposed by its
ruler
And receive evil in proportion to his evil tendencies
Most our duties are this proportioning of our acts to their
occasions
Wollaston meant this justice when he said all virtue is
agreement with truth
But true virtue contains a higher beauty than just proportion,
as stated
True virtue produces respect to dignity and all subordinate
justices
As gravitational attraction is a consequence of the
existence of gravity
Justice has a beauty superior to proportion in relation:
Expressing general benevolence and the will of God
Which chiefly makes the truly virtuous seek it

IV

5. The disposition to approve of secondary beauty has nothing of true

virtue in itself
Does all love arise from self-love? Self-love can have two meanings:
1. A mans love of whatever makes him happy whatever pleases him
This comes down to loving what you love of course all love resolves into
this
This is only a capacity for loving or hating having a faculty of will
But you cant say you love this as opposed to that because you have a
capacity for loving
No specific love can arise from this definition of love
Or if it means a mans love of the happiness he gets from loving others
The love must precede the gratification and is not based on it
2. A mans regard for himself and his private interests
Private interests are pleasures and pains originating in oneself, not
sympathy
In inborn personal inclinations towards perceptions such as:
External beauty, secondary beauty, and others love of them
Not by any participation in the happiness or sorrow of others
Self-love is primarily the love of love to oneself this brings the most
pleasure
The worst suffering would be to be abhorred by God and everyone else
Does all love arise from private interests? Certainly some love to others may
Although not by metaphysical necessity only a common outcome of
natural proportions
The law of equilibrium is not a consequence of the law of gravity
But both derive from Gods inclination to proportion and harmony
The force of gravity is not necessarily inversely proportional to distance
squared
So love of those that love you is natural if nothing else intervenes
Do we have a moral sense determining us to approve of virtue (besides selflove)?
We are more grateful or angry at those that help or hurt us by good or ill
will than by nature
Does a moral sense make gratitude or anger differently excited towards
inanimate objects?
1. If gratitude or anger cannot arise from self-love, neither can they
from love to others
Moral sense is supposed to derive from instinctive love to the public
We are more grateful or angry at those that help or hurt the public
So this argument does not prove that love of others cannot arise
from self-love
2. If love of others arises from self-love, of course it loves different
things different ways
3. If gratitude or anger require a moral sense, this need only be of
desert or justice

 And justice is only apprehending the secondary beauty in uniformity

and proportion
Entirely different from the original essential beauty of true virtue
So if there exists a moral sense, it is not virtuous
4. If the moral sense arises from true virtue, it must seek the public
good
If gratitude and anger imply a moral sense, they must always seek
the public good
This is not the cases [hypothetical counter-examples follow]
5. Also a mans anger would be greater in proportion to a his
benevolent disposition
Therefore at least some gratitude and anger do not arise from true
virtue
What about other loves and hates?
Familial affection derives from self-love since our interests are
intertwined
Love to qualities and characters arises from self-love, even without
knowing the person
If one knows such character tends to mans benefit from experience
or teaching
Likewise hate of characters pernicious to mankind generally arises
from self-love
Men commonly are most affected toward and approving of those
virtues
which agree most with their interests in their condition of life
The higher the degree of the virtue, the more self-love approves of
it
Men approve of justice from self-love since it benefits themselves
Men approve of benevolence and disapprove of malice from self-love
Since a proportion (secondary beauty) connects them with reward
and punishment
: All moral virtues can come from self-love and association of ideas, without
true virtue
They are often greatly heightened by cultural education (of not true value)
V Self-love also makes a man uneasy at being inconsistent with himself
Since self-love implies an inclination to feel and act at one with ourselves
Giving a disinclination to do to others what he would not have them do to him
Since this is to disagree with oneself and contradict oneself contrary to
nature
This is quite different from an inclination due to unity with the other
As a part of ones unity with being in general, which only is true virtue
The only way to know what others are feeling is to put yourself in their place
This is called conscience. Natural conscience consists in two things:
1. (Dis)approval of treatment of others as (in)consistent with what we
would want

 By imagining oneself in the place of victim and judge

And so judging oneself the same way God judges us
2. A sense of desert or justice as the ground of this (dis)approval
These cover all virtue and vice all moral good and evil
Thus natural conscience concurs with the law of God
Thus natural conscience may approve of general benevolence
It may yield all to God as our creator and sustainer
If fully enlightened, cosmopolitan, and delivered from stupefying
appetites
Yet without true virtue!
This natural conscience is the so-called moral sense
Even when disinterested, it is not a disposition to true virtue
This covers all approbation of virtue not from self-love or general
benevolence
If conscience were the same as virtue, it would always be in the same
degree
And remorse of conscience would always be accompanied with
repentance
But some men are vicious despite strong rebukes of conscience
In the final judgment all stupidity of conscience will be ended
And it will approve the sentence against itself
If conscience were virtue, this would be repentance and conversion
Instead it will be given up to complete wickedness of heart
VI Instincts are natural dispositions and inclinations common to man
Including appetites, aversions, sex drive, tastes, and emotions
Kind affections are natural instincts which resemble general benevolence
The natural affection of parents to children arising from self-love is not
virtue
As shown previously since they are connected
But suppose it arises from instinct this is implanted by God in nature
It is not true virtue since it is limited in scope only including
children
Since it arises by definition from instinct, not general
benevolence
And since it does not produce general benevolence (putting
children first)
These arguments prove any private affection not arising from virtue is
not virtue
No matter how big the love is (unless it includes everything in God)
Love between the sexes is higher than self-love but lower than general
benevolence
It does not produce it, and it has the same purpose as the sex drive
Pity for distressed is instinctive, not necessarily virtuous
If it were, it would pity the dead and rejoice in the prosperity of the
living

 It may coexist with malevolence, if the harm goes beyond intention

Therefore natural pity is not true virtue, but an instinct for our
preservation
In hell these generous instincts will presumably not exist
Therefore natural instincts, although they approve virtue over vice, are not
true virtue
VII These things are mistaken for virtue because
They have something that belongs to it love
Including both benevolence to other beings and complacence in virtue
Benevolence
Some natural affections have the tendency and effect of
benevolence in part
Others have a private benevolence that falls short in nature and
object
Pity has one effect the same as benevolence unease over the
distressed
Gratitude may turn into love that looks like private benevolence
Friendship, partisanship, and nationalism are all loves
Sex drive and parent-child relationships often work by love
They are defective since private in nature and effect
They can be considered beautiful only by ignoring all outside
their sphere
The larger the number loved, the more the love is mistaken for true
virtue
Self-love is not mistaken for virtue as it is obviously limited
Complacence
Conscience approves virtue and disapproves of vice because of
uniformity
Self-love, by association of ideas
Pity, from compassion
They have a true negative moral goodness, being opposed to evil
This is why conscience can be gradually conquered and convinced self is
all
Forgetting God and hell, it becomes completely sensual
Gratitude diminishes pride and sensuality
Likewise affection and pity have to be conquered by evil
They have the same two effects as true virtue
1. They tend to the good of mankind
2. They tend to restrain vice
But this is by the ordinance of God for our good, not true virtue
They are of the same denomination as true virtue
There is a truly virtuous pity, gratitude, justice, affection, and sexual love
True virtue prevents pride and sensuality, and promotes the gentler
natural instincts, and guides all to the best purposes
VIII Does virtue come from sentiment or reason?
Beauty (as of virtue) must be immediately agreeable in itself

Something admired for reason of a connected thing is not beautiful in

itself
We come to beauty by immediate sensation, not logic or calculation
The frame of our minds must be ready to perceive the beauty
In this case virtue is founded in sentiment, not in reason
It must come from an immediate spiritual sense given by God
We must be directly gratified by the virtue, not calculate its benefits
But virtue is not arbitrary a delight in vice is contrary to the nature of
existence
Firstly, an opposition to being in general is opposed to existence
Secondly, God wouldnt give a temper opposed to himself
Thirdly, virtue is necessary for concord among created beings
Fourthly, virtue is the only way a man can be consistent with himself
Consistency requires desiring happiness of being in general
If everyone loved universal misery, everyone would be miserable
But a man must love his own happiness by definition
Thus Scripture calls the sense of the excellence of virtue light and
understanding
If virtue were arbitrary it could not enlighten or be understood
But since it represents the nature of God, by it we see and understand
God
And by him we have right understanding of all other things
Conscience is also established in agreement with the nature of things
1. It approves the same things as true virtue
Which by the preceding arguments agree with the nature of things
2. It consists in approving uniformity and agreement between things
And agreement between things is agreeable to the nature of things
But men call different things right and wrong, expressing moral judgments
Does this mean our moral sense is based on arbitrary sentiments?
Firstly, the general judgment of right and wrong is the same in all
Only differing objects and occasions produce different expressions
Also example, custom, education, and association add variety
Secondly, communication is only possible by using common terminology
By calling things right and wrong people assume a common definition
If bad people use them falsely they are inconsistent with
themselves