JB/015/366/001

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3 Temperance – including Sobriety & Chastity. For the
observance of submission to their dictates there is the strongest prima facie case.
Neither prudence nor benevolence are appears compromised by the observance
of these virtues. Both may be, most seriously, by their infraction.
But even here on a closer examination it will appear that
nothing but the subordination of Temperance to the two great
primary virtues will make it really virtuous. What virtue would is
there be in the Temperance which would produces disease or death.
What virtue was there in the fastings of ascetic moralists making
experiments on the powers of abstinence & frequently perishing
in the struggle? In the instance of Temperance as in those
of most of the virtues inculcated by ancient writers, the
imperfection of their theory of morals is made manifest –
and the necessity of some introducing some other test besides the
det so-called virtue in order to determine whether it really
be a virtue, is the best evidence of the incompleteness of their
Moral Code. This test they called moderation – for their notion
was that in the excess of virtue there was no virtue at all.
In too much temperance there was no virtue – in too little
there was none. Their golden mean was in fact a vague
notion recognition of some higher quality to which their virtues, in order
to make prove them virtues – must be made subordinate. They
were not happy in the choice of a word, – tho' they could
find no better a word than moderation. They would have been
ill satisfied content with its application to the business of life – they
would not have been satisfied certainly with moderate honesty
on the part of their dependants – or moderate chastity on the
part of their wives – or moderate temperance on the part of
their children. But in feeling the insufficiency & inapplicability of
their phraseology they wanted some other guide. Their virtues
were the virtues of occasion, – whose value depended not on
their intrinsic & substantial excellence, but on the circumstances
well which called them into operation. What was virtue this moment
might not be virtue the next. Thus their definitions of
virtue were sometimes so narrow as to exclude the realit of highest virtue
& sometimes so wide and vague as to embrace equally both
virtue and vice.

Identifier: | JB/015/366/001 "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	366	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f41
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks	c wise 1829
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1829
Notes public		ID Number	5582
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