Essay on the Nature and Obligations of Virtue
Publisher: Kessinger Publishing
Published: July 2003
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 412
ISBN-13: 9780766169265
Subjects: Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy
First sentence: I Always thought, that Virtue, which we expect all mankind fhould practife, muft be fomething, which all mankind either are or eafily may be acquainted with: for though it is not to be imagined, that the vulgar and illiterate fhould be able to explain what they mean, though none but men of skill and fcience can give definitions of words and put their thoughts into fuch language as to make them intelligible to others; yet certainly common fenfe joined to the moft ordinary helps of inftruction muft afford a more obvious notion of virtue than any that is to be met with in the writings of the moralifts: or elfe I know not how we can take it ill or reafonably complain, that fo few are virtuous; when from the accounts, which learned men have given us of it, fo few can know what virtue is.