The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
MORAL PRINCIPLES / MORAL SENSE AND CONSCIENCE
He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the
rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of
science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of
them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be
formed to this object He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong,
merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature,
as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of
morality, and not the
truth, &c., as fanciful writers have
imagined. The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as
his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or
weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less
degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb
of the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the
guidance of reason; but it is a small stock which is required for
this: even a less one than what we call common sense. State a moral
case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as
well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led
astray by artificial rules. In this branch, therefore, read good
books, because they will encourage, as well as direct your feelings.
The writings of Sterne, particularly, form the best course of morality
that ever was written. Besides these,
lose no occasion of
exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be
charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous,
&c. Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise which will
strengthen your moral faculties and increase your worth.
to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787
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