III.

As an instance of the advantage which a philosophical traveller has over
an unprepared one, look at the difference which will enter into a man's
judgment of nations, according as he carries about with him the vague
popular notion of a Moral Sense, or has investigated the laws under
which feelings of right and wrong grow up in all men. It is worth while
to dwell a little on this important point.

Most persons who take no great pains to think for themselves, have a
notion that every human being has feelings, or a conscience, born with
him, by which he knows, if he will only attend to it, exactly what is
right and wrong; and that, as right and wrong are fixed and immutable,
all ought to agree as to what is sin and virtue in every case. Now,
mankind are, and always have been, so far from agreeing as to right and
wrong, that it is necessary to account in some manner for the wide
differences in various ages, and among various nations. A great
diversity of doctrines has been put forth for the purpose of lessening
the difficulty; but they all leave certain portions of the race under
the condemnation or compassion of the rest for their error, blindness,
or sin. Moreover, no doctrines yet invented have accounted for some
total revolutions in the ideas of right and wrong, which have occurred
in the course of ages. A person who takes for granted that there is an
universal Moral Sense among men, as unchanging as he who bestowed it,
cannot reasonably explain how it was that those men were once esteemed
the most virtuous who killed the most enemies in battle, while now it is
considered far more noble to save life than to destroy it. They cannot
but wonder how it was that it was once thought a great shame to live in
misery, and an honour to commit suicide; while now the wisest and best
men think exactly the reverse. And, with regard to the present age, it
must puzzle men who suppose that all ought to think alike on moral
subjects, that there are parts of the world where mothers believe it a
duty to drown their children, and that eastern potentates openly deride
the king of England for having only one wife instead of one hundred.
There is no avoiding illiberality, under this belief,--as the
philosopher understands illiberality. There is no avoiding the
conclusion that the people who practice infanticide and polygamy are
desperately wicked; and that minor differences of conduct are, abroad as
at home, so many sins.

The observe