ON MORAL EVIDENCE, ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS EXAMPLES BOTH OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND OF SPECIFIC ACTIONS, BY EDWARD ARTHUR SMEDLEY, M.A. LATE CHAPLAIN OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, PREFACE. If, WHEN a builder intends to build a house, his first object is to secure a good foundation. after the work has proceeded, flaws and defects appear in the superstructure, they may, doubtless, be soon remedied or removed. But if the foundation is unsound, and yet the house is built, the difficulty of remedying the evil becomes proportionably great. Nothing will serve but the pulling down of all the materials, and a recommencement of the work from the beginning. So it is with principles. The mind of man recognises certain foundations, and on them builds a superstructure. But if his fundamental elements are bad, or if in his mental progress he admits any thing that is insufficient, then, before he can return to a healthy state of mind, he must pull down all that rests upon an inadequate support. Though the task be painful and laborious, and though he be compelled to descend to the very foundation, still the thing must be done. This paramount necessity then being admitted, it will clearly be of proportionable importance, that we fully understand the proper use of the means by which we are to arrive at the possession of our elements, or, in other words, to obtain those truths which we so highly prize. Since right conduct implies a due reception of truth, if we are able to appreciate that which shews such truth, i.e. evidence, we have thus at least a power which is necessary to the discharge of our duty. We are like men who, being about to enter into battle, are at all events trained in handling and applying their weapons. We are as artists, sculptors, say, or painters, who, having good materials and suitable instruments, well know the art of using them. It cannot be doubted that the Creator, intending men to imbue their minds with certain abstract principles of action, designed also that in the daily intercourse of life, as circumstances required, they should develop those principles by a practical application. On a given occasion truths are presented to the mind, of which being convinced, and understanding the relations founded on these truths, as well as armed with its abstract principles, it is thus prepared for action. In the following pages it is attempted to give specimens of the establishment of abstract principles, and in some degree to explain the manner of their application. Since, however, much that is adduced is exhibited principally in the way of example, it will probably in itself appear meagre and insufficient. Accordingly, for fuller information the Reader is referred to writers who treat professedly upon subjects which are here but incidentally introduced. Nevertheless, what is given may, we trust, be useful as far as it reaches; and it will at all events furnish illustration of the exercise of that great faculty by which man is distinguished, viz. the judicial faculty of appreciating truth. A great question, as is well known, has arisen among moralists in regard to what is termed the moral sense, said to be naturally inherent in man. I am not ignorant, therefore, that |
