frame excuses for his conduct;--he never
attempts to question those universal principles by which he feels that
his actions must be condemned, if the facts are proved against him.
Without such principles, indeed, thus universally recognised, it is
evident that the whole system of human things would go into confusion
and ruin. Human laws may restrain or punish gross acts of violence and
injustice; but they can never provide for numberless methods by which a
man may injure his neighbour, or promote his own interest at the expense
of others. There are, in fact, but a very few cases which can be
provided for by any human institution; it is a principle within that
regulates the whole moral economy. In its extent and importance, when
compared with all the devices of man, it may be likened to those great
principles which guide the movements of the universe, contrasted with
the contrivances by which men produce particular results for their own
convenience; and one might as well expect to move a planet by machinery,
or propel a comet by the power of steam, as to preserve the semblance of
order in the moral world, without those fundamental principles of
rectitude which form a part of the original constitution of every
rational being.

Farther, as each man has the consciousness of these principles in
himself, he has the conviction that similar principles exist in others.
Hence arises the impression, that, as he judges of their conduct by his
own moral feelings, so will they judge of him by corresponding feelings
in themselves. In this manner is produced that reciprocity of moral
impression, by which a man feels the opinion of his fellow-men to be
either a reward or a punishment; and hence also springs that great rule
of relative duty, which teaches us to do to others as we would that they
should do to us. This uniformity of moral feeling and affection even
proves a check upon those who have subdued the influence of these
feelings in themselves. Thus, a man who has thrown off all sense of
justice, compassion, or benevolence, is still kept under a certain
degree of control by the conviction of these impressions existing in
those by whom he is surrounded. There are indeed men in the world, as
has been remarked by Butler, in whom this appears to be the only
restraint to which their conduct is subjected.

Upon the whole, therefore, there seems to be ground for assuming, that
the articles of belief, which have been the subject of the