JB/015/236/001

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90

Virtue with its divisions

But what says Utility? What are the really valuable virtues, – what the
subservient virtues which grow out of them? Taking for the standard & the test of virtue
its conduciveness to well being it is believed as has been said above that all the modifications of virtue
may be arranged under the two heads of prudence & beneficence. Beyond these
there is no intrinsically valuable virtue. To one or other of these every
useful moral quality will be found to belong. These then may be called
the primary virtues. Take away prudence, take away benevolence from the tree of morals
you strip it of all its flowers & fruits – of its strength, – its beauty &
its use. You have a worthless, unproductive trunk – smitten with
barrenness, – the mere cumberer of the ground. The value of the whole tribe of ancillary or
secondary virtues depends wholly altogether on their subserviency to these two
primary virtues. Hence it follows 1 That If the primary virtues were not useful neither could the
secondary virtues be so. 2dly That their utility must consist in advancing the same
ends which it is the object of the primary virtues to advance. 3 To one person or In the case of
other 3The tendency of
the primary virtues is invariably towards usefulness in the case of some person or other on whom they are exercised whether useful or not to human society on the whole. 4 The usefulness of the secondary
virtues is to be measured by their tendency to produce those effects which it is
the tendency of the primary virtues to produce. 5 Their usefulness must be measured
by the degree in which they contribute to advance those ends which are the
ends of the primary virtues. Occasion will be found to bring the whole of
the secondary virtues under review & to test their value by the principles
which have been here developed.

The modes in which the various virtues may be
brought into operation – by discourse – by writing – or by deportment
belong to the practical branch of the subject.

Identifier: | JB/015/236/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	015	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	236	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f90
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks	m 1826
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1826
Notes public		ID Number	5452
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