Kitap 1
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Well, then, when we are debating about natural and unnatural and right and wrong what criterion are we to take?
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I cannot tell.
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And yet to be ignorant of a criterion of colors, or of smells, or tastes, might perhaps be no very great loss; but do you think that he suffers only a small loss who is ignorant of what is good and evil, and natural and unnatural to man?
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No,—the very greatest.
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Well, tell me; are all things which are judged good and proper by some rightly judged to be so? Thus, is it possible that the several opinions of Jews, and Syrians, and Egyptians, and Romans, concerning food should all be right?
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How can it be possible?
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I suppose, then, it is absolutely necessary that, if the opinions of the Egyptians be right, the others must be wrong; if those of the Jews be good, all the rest must be bad.
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How can it be otherwise?
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And where ignorance is, there likewise is want of wisdom and instruction in the most necessary points.
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It is granted.
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Then, as you are sensible of this, you will for the future apply yourself to nothing, and think of nothing else, but how to learn the criterion of what is agreeable to nature; and to use that in judging of each particular case. At present the assistance I have to give you towards what you desire is this: Does affection seem to you to be a right and a natural thing?
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How should it be otherwise?
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Well, and is affection natural and right, and reason not so?
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By no means.
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Is there any opposition, then, between reason and affection?
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I think not.
