Of the Standard of Taste (1757) [ Concepts ]
… from HOMER down to FENELON, to inculcate the same moral precepts, and to bestow their applause and blame on the same virtues and vices. This great unanimity is usually ascribed to the influence of plain reason; which, in all these cases, … allow that some part of the seeming harmony in morals may be accounted for from the very nature of language. The word virtue , with its equivalent in every tongue, implies praise; as that of vice does blame: And no one, without the most … believers. The merit of delivering true general precepts in ethics is indeed very small. Whoever recommends any moral virtues, really does no more than is implied in the terms themselves. That people, who invented the word charity , and …
Taste | Religion | Charity
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