PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. It has been said, in criticism of the present work, that writers of this school draw from a double fountain; utility and internal conviction; -the tendencies of actions, and the feelings with which we regard them. To this I reply, that all Systems of Morality must draw from a double fountain: man's external circumstances, and his internal nature. On the one hand, Rules cannot be given for actions without regarding the tendencies of the actions; on the other hand, the feelings with which we regard actions are necessarily referred to in considering their moral character. The two sources must always flow into our Morality, but one of them or the other may be made the principal one in framing the System. Some moralists employ themselves mainly in deducing the Rules of action from considering the tendencies of actions to produce human pleasure or pain; as Paley and Bentham: others take pains to show that man has a faculty by which he appre |