"--(IV. pp.
376-7.)
Hume has not discussed the theological theory of the obligations of
morality, but it is obviously in accordance with his view of the nature
of those obligations. Under its theological aspect, morality is
obedience to the will of God; and the ground for such obedience is
two-fold; either we ought to obey God because He will punish us if we
disobey Him, which is an argument based on the utility of obedience; or
our obedience ought to flow from our love towards God, which is an
argument based on pure feeling and for which no reason can be given.
For, if any man should say that he takes no pleasure in the
contemplation of the ideal of perfect holiness, or, in other words, that
he does not love God, the attempt to argue him into acquiring that
pleasure would be as hopeless as the endeavour to persuade Peter Bell of
the "witchery of the soft blue sky."
In whichever way we look at the matter, morality is based on feeling,
not on reason; though reason alone is competent to trace out the effects
of our actions and thereby dictate conduct. Justice is founded on the
love of one's neighbour; and goodness is a kind of beauty. The moral
law, like the laws of physical nature, rests in the long run upon
instinctive intuitions, and is neither more nor less "innate" and
"necessary" than they are. Some people cannot by any means be got to
understand the first book of Euclid; but the truths of mathematics are
no less necessary and binding on the great mass of mankind.
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