this notion from reason, which pointed out the difference between right and wrong, in the same manner in which it did that between truth and falsehood: and this conclusion, which tho' true in some respects, is rather hasty in others, was more easily received at a time when the abstract science of human nature was but in its infancy, and before the distinct offices and powers of the different fa|culties of the human mind had been carefully examined and distinguished from one another. When this controversy with Mr. Hobbs was carried on with the greatest warmth and keenness, no other faculty had been thought of from which any such ideas could possibly ••e supposed to arise. It became at this time, therefore, the popular doctrine, that the essence of virtue and vice did not consist in the conformity or disagreement of human actions with the law of a superior, but in ••heir conformity or disagreement with reason, which was thus considered as the original ••ource and principle of approbation and dis|••pprobation.
That virtue consists in conformity to rea|son is true in some respects, and this faculty may very justly be considered, as in some ••ense, the source and principle of approbation
