a whole,
do not complete the idea, unless in the notion of a whole you include the
relations and respects which these parts have to each other." This fruitful
conception of man's ethical nature as an organic unity Butler owes directly
to Shaftesbury and indirectly to Aristotle; it is the strength and
clearness with which he has grasped it that gives peculiar value to his
system.

The special relation among the parts of our nature to which Butler alludes
is the subordination of the particular passions to the universal principle
of reflection or conscience. This relation is the peculiarity, the _cross_,
of man; and when it is said that virtue consists in following nature, we
mean that it consists in pursuing the course of conduct dictated by this
superior faculty. Man's function is not fulfilled by obeying the passions,
or even cool self-love, but by obeying conscience. That conscience has a
natural supremacy, that it is superior in kind, is evident from the part it
plays in the moral constitution. We judge a man to have acted wrongly,
_i.e._ unnaturally, when he allows the gratification of a passion to injure
his happiness, _i.e._ when he acts in accordance with passion and against
self-love. It would be impossible to pass this judgment if self-love were
not regarded as superior in kind to the passions, and this superiority
results from the fact that it is the peculiar province of self-love to take
a view of the several passions and decide as to their relative importance.
But there is in man a faculty which takes into consideration all the
springs of action, including self-love, and passes judgment upon them,
approving some and condemning others. From its very nature this faculty is
supreme in authority, if not in power; it reflects upon all the other
active powers, and pronounces absolutely upon their moral quality.
Superintendency and authority are constituent parts of its very idea. We
are under obligation to obey the law revealed in the judgments of this
faculty, for it is the law of our nature. And to this a religious sanction
may be added, for "consciousness of a rule or guide of action, in creatures
capable of considering it as given them by their Maker, not only raises
immediately a sense of duty, but also a sense of security in following it,
and a sense of danger in deviating from it." Virtue then consists in
following the true law of our nature, that is, conscience. Butler, however,
is by no means very explicit