Virtue's true
lineage is older and more respectable than any that can be invented for
her. She springs from man's experience concerning his own well-being--and
this, though not infallible, is still the least fallible thing we have. A
system which cannot stand without a better foundation than this must have
something so unstable within itself that it will topple over on whatever
pedestal we place it.
The world has long ago settled that morality and virtue are what bring
men peace at the last. "Be virtuous," says the copy-book, "and you will
be happy." Surely if a reputed virtue fails often in this respect it is
only an insidious form of vice, and if a reputed vice brings no very
serious mischief on a man's later years it is not so bad a vice as it is
said to be. Unfortunately though we are all of a mind about the main
opinion that virtue is what tends to happiness, and vice what ends in
sorrow, we are not so unanimous about details--that is to say as to
whether any given course, such, we will say, as smoking, has a tendency
to happiness or the reverse.
I submit it as the result of my own poor observation, that a good deal of
unkindness and selfishness on the part of parents towards children is not
generally followed by ill consequences to the parents themselves.
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