Sketches of the philosophy of life / By Sir T.C. Morgan.

  • Thomas Charles Morgan
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketches of the philosophy of life / By Sir T.C. Morgan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tion of metaphysical science which followed its removal from the grasp of natural philosophers, and its amalgamation with scholastic divinity. The various successive theories which -have’ flourished since the revival of learning, to ex- plain the phenomena of mind, and to serve as standards for judging of moral codes, have, in their speedydeclension and rapid neglect, borne ample testimony to the errors of those methods on which they have been founded. It is alone, as a branch of the natural history of man, that these subjects can be successfully treated: and the rapid and imposing march of mind, under this new direction, leads to the most flattering anticipations of future success. Good and evil are principles intelligible only as they re- late to the laws of organic existence. Crimi- nality in morals, like unwholesomeness in me- dicine, bears immediately upon an interference with the healthy discharge of function, either in the individual or in society ; and the adoption of any other criterion for judging of actions, leads immediately to false conclusions and to fatal and destructive prejudices.* With this clue for a guide, it would have been impossible * Hoc autem, de quo agimus, id ipsum est, quod utile ap- pellatur; in quo lapsa consuetudo deflexit de vid; sensimque eo. deducta est, ut bonestatem ab utilitate secernens, et consti-~ tuerit honestum esse aliquid quod utile non esset, et utile,
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