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116

Chapter XV
Analysis of Virtues & Vices

The ground has now been cleared for and the application foundation laid for the moral Edifice. What remains to be done is to
sweep away the surrounding rubbish, – or to take from the
heaps such portions as will assist the builder in the erection
of the Temple of Virtue. Wherever Prudence presents itself,
wherever effective benevolence presents itself – they will
be rescued from the huge heaps which have hitherto
encumbered the ground of Ethics. Where neither
of these is discoverable, let who will turn the impostor
virtue to account. No acceptance will it find here.
Let who will reprobate the calumniated ones. Here there will be no

And so as to vice. No quarrel have we
with any action that neither injures the actor himself, nor
any body else – that takes nothing away from happiness –
still less with any action, which, be it called by what
name it may, leaves a balance of enjoyment on the whole.

Virtues & vices are voluntary habits. If they
are not voluntary – the words of the Moralist might
as well be flung to the winds. To the two branches of
virtue – prudence & benevolence – correspond two branches
of vices. Imprudence the vice in a man which is primarily hurtful
to himself. Improbity the vice which is hurtful primarily
to others.

It matters little in what order the self called
virtues or vices present themselves. There is no marshalling them They are susceptible
of no arrangement – they are a disorderly body – whose
members are frequently in hostility with one another.
Most of them consist of a portion of good – a portion of evil
& a portion of matter indifferent. Most of them are characterised
by that vagueness which is a convenient instrument for the
poetical, – but dangerous or useless to the practical moralist.

The three commonly called cardinal
virtues however naturally present themselves first to the mind.

Identifier: | JB/015/266/001 "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	266	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles	chapter xv / analysis of virtues & vices
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f116
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5482
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