cerning an apple or a kingdom, or whether the
error be avoidable or unavoidable. For as the very essence of morality
is supposed to consist in an agreement or disagreement to reason, the
other circumstances are entirely arbitrary, and can never either bestow
on any action the character of virtuous or vicious, or deprive it
of that character. To which we may add, that this agreement or
disagreement, not admitting of degrees, all virtues and vices would of
course be equal.

Should it be pretended, that though a mistake of fact be not criminal,
yet a mistake of right often is; and that this may be the source of
immorality: I would answer, that it is impossible such a mistake can
ever be the original source of immorality, since it supposes a real
right and wrong; that is, a real distinction in morals, independent of
these judgments. A mistake, therefore, of right may become a species
of immorality; but it is only a secondary one, and is founded on some
other, antecedent to it.

As to those judgments which are the effects of our actions, and which,
when false, give occasion to pronounce the actions contrary to truth
and reason; we may observe, that our actions never cause any judgment,
either true or false, in ourselves, and that it is only on others
they have such an influence. It is certain, that an action, on many
occasions, may give rise to false conclusions in others; and that a
person, who through a window sees any lewd behaviour of mine with my
neighbour's wife, may be so simple as to imagine she is certainly my
own. In this respect my action resembles somewhat a lye or falshood;
only with this difference, which is material, that I perform not the
action with any intention of giving rise to a false judgment in another,
but merely to satisfy my lust and passion. It causes, however, a mistake
and false judgment by accident; and the falshood of its effects may be
ascribed, by some odd figurative way of speaking, to the action itself.
But still I can see no pretext of reason for asserting, that the
tendency to cause such an error is the first spring or original source
of all immorality.

[Footnote 12. One might think it were entirely superfluous
to prove this, if a late author [William Wollaston, THE
RELIGION OF NATURE DELINEATED (London 1722)], who has had
the good fortune to obtain some reputation, had not
seriously affirmed, that such a falshood is the foundation
of all guilt and