Virtue and Vice
‹ 10 · Outline
11.Virtue and vice in religion, poetry and art
11a.Natural virtue and Christian virtue
See also: Philosophy 4b
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 140Imitating God's faithfulness and beneficence is the aim.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 170Virgil dwells with those who lacked the three theological virtues but followed the other four blamelessly.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 221Saints fought vices, lived in humility, obedience, love and patience, rich in grace though poor in the world.read · scan
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36
- p. 322Aristotle's Ethics is called directly contrary to God's will and Christian virtues.read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36
- p. 351Social and human virtues of purity and benevolence do not save without faith.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 43–45Atheism leaves natural guides to outward moral virtue, whereas superstition dismounts them.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 305Virtuous pagans live by nature's dictates like beasts, so their perfect actions give no title to Heaven.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 117–119Where Christians live vice dies and virtues endure.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 204Abdiel links strength failing where virtue fails; faith and piety to God preferredread · scan
John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4
- p. 395The Stoic's self-sufficient virtue is vain boast; virtue sought in self rather than God.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 118–119Virtue's strength is measured by ordinary life, not momentary spiritual efforts; rejects Stoic inference that what one does once all can do always.read · scan
- p. 146Without divine knowledge men fall into pride or sloth, the two sources of vice, and cannot reach perfect virtue.read · scan
- p. 155Reference to the vices of Zeno.read · scan
- p. 160–161The true and only virtue is to hate self and love a lovable Being within us who is not ourselves.read · scan
- p. 164–165Subdued passions are virtues; philosophers consecrated vices by placing them in God, Christians consecrated the virtues.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 389Epictetus thinks man can acquire all virtues by his own powers.read · scan
- p. 395–396Montaigne rejects severe Stoic virtue, preferring a pleasant, playful virtue guided by convenience and tranquillity.read · scan
- p. 396Pride and indolence are the two vices of the sects.read · scan
- p. 399–400Epictetus leads to pride, Montaigne to impiety; joined they disturb vice, expelling pride and indolence, though they cannot bestow virtue.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 23–24Morality, Legality and Civility are shown as inadequate substitutes for true deliverance from sin.read · scan
- p. 86–87Holiness of life inwardly abhors sin and promotes holiness in the world.read · scan
- p. 125–126Ignorance claims he is a good liver who pays every man his ownread · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 359Christ's holiness, humility and mercy teach what we should be.read · scan
- p. 365Nothing in us unlike God can please him.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 374Without sense of dependency on God one cannot be a moral man.read · scan
- p. 374The moral man loves God above all and neighbor as himself; insincere secrecy and disguise are hateful.read · scan
- p. 386–387Devotion is empty while one lies, swears, is drunk, covetous, proud and revengeful.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 398–399Epicurean teaching is not shown to threaten good morals or social order.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 281–282No virtue arises from new worship that does not follow from natural faculties.read · scan
- p. 300Compares Socrates and Jesus; virtue was practiced in Greece before Socrates defined it, while Jesus alone gave precept and example.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 164–166Morality embracing all opinions is banished to hell by zealous orthodoxy.read · scan
- p. 212–213Patron's kindness is mere natural inclination, not godliness; morality without faith deridedread · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 277Religion has no necessary connection with any virtue; devout faith coexists with determined, enormous guilt.read · scan
George Long, M. Aurelius AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 314–315Antoninus venerated as model of virtue and benevolence; his ethics owed nothing to Christianity.read · scan
George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 345Epictetus and Antoninus showed that man's nature and the constitution of things give sufficient reason for a virtuous life, though living so is difficult.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 276–277The fatal trait is the divorce between religion and morality; ritual covers indulgence.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 242Christian morality is negative, passive, ideal of innocence over nobleness, abstinence from evil over pursuit of good; incomplete and one-sided.read · scan
- p. 244A complete morality needs elements beyond Christian ethics for the moral regeneration of mankind.read · scan
11b.Eastern and scriptural codes of virtue
See also: Religion 14d · Wisdom 7d · Government 4a
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 5The gentleman practises faithfulness, truth to friends, and self-examination, indifferent to fame.read · scan
- p. 5–6The young should be dutiful, modest, true, and mend faults; faithfulness and truth are masters.read · scan
- p. 8The gentleman acts before he speaks and is broad and fair, unlike the petty.read · scan
- p. 10The gentleman stays courteous even in rivalry at archery.read · scan
- p. 13The gentleman follows right, cherishes worth, trusts in justice, hates evil.read · scan
- p. 13–14The gentleman considers right, the vulgar profit; gain breeds hate; look inward when meeting evil.read · scan
- p. 14Self-restraint and slowness to speak, quickness to act mark the gentleman; good has neighbours.read · scan
- p. 14Confucius judges the worth of disciples; a glib tongue breeds bitterness and is no proof of love.read · scan
- p. 14Master withholds judgement whether disciples have love, though he credits their abilities.read · scan
- p. 16Tzu-ch'an is modelled as a gentleman: modest, respectful, kind and just; asking those beneath is cultured.read · scan
- p. 16–17Ch'en Wen's withdrawal is pure but not proven loving; Ning Wu's simplicity in trouble is admired.read · scan
- p. 17Po-yi's integrity, refusing evil and serving only his own king, makes fools honest and weak wills strong.read · scan
- p. 17–18Modesty about talent, kindness to old and young, faithfulness to friends; no one sees and arraigns his own faults.read · scan
- p. 19Hui's heart never sinned against love for three months; others hold out a day or month.read · scan
- p. 19Tan-t'ai Mieh-ming is upright, avoiding short-cuts and coming only on business; excuse of lacking strength is rebuked.read · scan
- p. 21He grieves at neglecting his good, lack of thoroughness, and failing to overcome faults.read · scan
- p. 27Holiness is not multiplicity of skills; a gentleman is not many-sided.read · scan
- p. 29Faithfulness and truth as masters; be unashamed to mend faults; heed guiding words and ponder them.read · scan
- p. 29–30The wise are free from doubt, love is never vexed, the bold have no fears; fir and cypress last in cold.read · scan
- p. 43–44Love means respect at home, diligence in work, faith to all; ranks of good servants by shame and modesty.read · scan
- p. 44Contrasts gentleman and vulgar; steadfastness needed; judge a man by whether good men like him and bad men hate him.read · scan
- p. 44–45Gentleman is high-minded not proud; strength, courage and meekness are akin to love.read · scan
- p. 48Gentleman's life leads upward, vulgar downward; paring one's faults.read · scan
- p. 48–49Gentleman is shamefast of speech and lets deeds outrun words; love unvexed, wisdom undoubting, courage fearless.read · scan
- p. 50The gentleman is one who shapes his mind to give happiness to others and the people.read · scan
- p. 51The gentleman is upright, taking office when right prevails and withdrawing in thought when wrong prevails.read · scan
- p. 52The gentleman makes right his base, looks within, is firm not quarrelsome; the vulgar look to others.read · scan
- p. 53The gentleman is strong for big tasks, the vulgar skilled in trifles; dignity and courtesy complete the mind.read · scan
- p. 56The gentleman guards against lust in youth, strife in manhood, greed in age, and holds Heaven, great men and holy words in awe.read · scan
- p. 56The gentleman's nine aims; longing for good, shrinking from evil; ruler's fame rests on virtue, not wealth.read · scan
- p. 57–58Five virtues bring respect, following, trust, success and service.read · scan
- p. 63–64Goodness blindly clutched and faith lacking simplicity are questioned; the gentleman honours worth and bears with many.read · scan
- p. 64The gentleman's changing demeanor, trust before burdening or reproving, and the vulgar's glossing of faults.read · scan
- p. 67Explains the five graces and four vices: cruelty, tyranny, robbery, littleness.read · scan
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 114–115To depart from evil is understanding; Job's charity and righteousness typified virtue.read · scan
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 156–158Corruption of all men versus the upright who walk righteously, speak truth, do not slander, and keep oaths.read · scan
- p. 160The psalmist claims perfection and keeping statutes; God mirrors each man's character.read · scan
- p. 267–269Vow to walk in a perfect way, hate perverse and base things, and reject pride and falsehood.read · scan
- p. 293–295Walking blamelessly in his ways, doing no unrighteousness; the proud wander from commandments.read · scan
- p. 301–302Refrains from every evil way and hates the double-minded and evil-doers.read · scan
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 585–587Eight conditions, including virtue-loving and fiery zeal, make his wish succeed.read · scan
- p. 591–593He searches for the perfections making a Buddha, first Alms, giving all without stint like an overturned jar.read · scan
- p. 593–595Sumedha finds perfections: Precepts, Renunciation, Wisdom and Courage, each illustrated by a simile, as conditions of Buddhaship.read · scan
- p. 596–598Sumedha finds the perfections of Patience, Truth, Resolution and Good-will, each with a simile, as the path to Buddhahood.read · scan
- p. 598–600The Ninth and Tenth Perfections, goodwill to friend and foe alike and even-balanced indifference, are practised as conditions of Buddhahood.read · scan
- p. 600–601He is urged to fulfil the Ten Perfections as all former Buddhas did.read · scan
- p. 606Accumulated merit prepares his destiny, and the queen takes vows and abstains from strong drink.read · scan
- p. 618–619The Ten Perfections and accumulated merit serve as his weapons; merit's energy nullifies the winds.read · scan
- p. 620–621The Buddha claims the seat by the Ten Perfections and great donations, which Mara has not fulfilled; gifts of treasure, wife, life.read · scan
- p. 626–627A true Brahman is defined by banishing evil traits, freedom from pride, self-restraint and learning, not birth.read · scan
- p. 642–643Priests are to live rightly so the world will not lack saints.read · scan
- p. 653Milinda objects that without an Ego no one keeps precepts or commits crimes, so moral responsibility seems lost.read · scan
- p. 666–667Classifies karma as meritorious, demeritorious and leading to immovability, by thoughts such as alms-giving versus taking life.read · scan
- p. 702–703Purity of conduct is the beginning of the religion; abstaining from wickedness is the first meritorious quality.read · scan
- p. 743–744Ten precepts of abstinence from killing, theft, lying, drink and luxury are the means of a moral life.read · scan
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 846Portrait of the beloved devotee: compassionate, free of arrogance and hatred, patient, self-mastered and equal to friend and foe.read · scan
- p. 846–849Truthfulness, patience, purity, harmlessness and self-control are enumerated as marks of wisdom.read · scan
- p. 853–855Purity brings happiness and truth; passion brings avarice and toil; ignorance brings sloth and darkness.read · scan
- p. 855–858Portrait of the man who surmounts the qualities: equanimous, self-centred, equal to grief and joy, praise and blame, friend and foe.read · scan
- p. 860–861Lists the marks of the heavenly nature (fearlessness, truthfulness, charity, patience) against the marks of the unheavenly (deceit, arrogance, anger).read · scan
- p. 863–865True religiousness of act, speech and mind is reverence, purity, harmlessness, truthful gentle words and serenity.read · scan
- p. 867–869Doers are classed as rightful, impassioned or evil (dark) by their selflessness, impulse and heedlessness.read · scan
- p. 869–870Steadfastness and understanding are graded as good, stained or sad according to sattwa, rajas and tamas.read · scan
- p. 870–871Lists the virtues native to Brahman and Kshatriya, and the tasks of Vaisya and Sudra, each according to nature.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 404Christians bind themselves by oath never to commit fraud, theft, adultery or break their word.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 938–939Patience, almsgiving, keeping covenant and warding off evil with good are praised.read · scan
- p. 958–959Believers are the best of nations for bidding right and forbidding wrong; some People of the Book are upright, charitable.read · scan
- p. 987–988Lists virtues of resigned, devout, truthful, patient, humble, almsgiving and chaste men and women, all promised forgiveness.read · scan
11c.Poetry and the moral teaching of virtue and vice
See also: Education 7c · Poetry 8a · Emotion 12b
Aristophanes, The FrogsVol. 8
- p. 469–470Poets are charged with making noble, virtuous men worse or better.read · scan
- p. 470–472Immoral plays of passion like Phaedra and Bellerophon are blamed for shame and corruption of noble wives.read · scan
William Caxton, Prefaces and EpiloguesVol. 39
- p. 13Hopes readers may increase in virtue, expel vice and amend their living by the saints' example.read · scan
- p. 15–16Cato's book praised as virtuous, letting a man shun vices and follow virtue; a governance of body and soul.read · scan
- p. 20The book is to teach following virtue and shunning vice; knights who were vicious were punished and shamed.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 479Well-made comedy incenses the hearer against vice and makes him love virtue.read · scan
- p. 487True heroic histories would make him enamoured of virtue, instructed in goodness, valiant without rashness, bold without cowardice.read · scan
Edmund Spenser, Prefatory Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on the Faerie QueeneVol. 39
- p. 61The poem's aim is to fashion a gentleman in virtuous discipline, perfecting Arthur in the twelve private moral virtues after Aristotle.read · scan
- p. 61Arthur represents magnificence, perfection of all virtues; knights embody holiness, temperance and chastity.read · scan
- p. 64–65Intermingled adventures show Belphoebe's virtuousness and Hellenora's lasciviousness.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 11–12Poets paint the outward beauty of a virtue, as Lucretia's look, delighting men into taking up goodness.read · scan
- p. 12The poet's mark is feigning notable images of virtues and vices, as Xenophon's Cyrus portrays a just empire.read · scan
- p. 17–18Poets lay virtues, vices and passions in their natural states to view, through Ulysses, Achilles, Medea and Atreus.read · scan
- p. 21Poetry makes men enamored of virtue; history often shows vice rewarded and virtue destroyed.read · scan
- p. 23–24Tales of Hercules and Aeneas convey wisdom, valor and justice, winning the mind from wickedness to virtue.read · scan
- p. 24Evil men who despise virtue as a school-name are still drawn to see the form of goodness.read · scan
- p. 25Virtue is the resting-place of all learning, and poetry teaches and moves toward it best.read · scan
- p. 25–26The satirist makes men ashamed of folly and iambic poets shame villainy.read · scan
- p. 28Heroic poetry makes magnanimity and justice shine and virtue lovely, inflaming the mind with desire and counsel to be worthy.read · scan
- p. 32–33No learning is so good as that which teaches and moves to virtue, and poetry does this best.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 148–149Drama shows virtue her own feature and scorn her own image.read · scan
Ben Jonson, The AlchemistVol. 47
- p. 542The age breeds vices beyond cure, yet comedy shows natural follies so doers may see and not own them.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 342His sermons portray vice so as to make it ugly and virtue beloved.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 62Lady hates that Vice can argue boldly while Virtue lacks a tongue; contrasts virginity with false reasoning.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 24–25Montaigne's lewd words and licentious opinions criticized.read · scan
John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13
- p. 5Epic forms the mind to heroic virtue by example; trifling novels soften the soul into vice.read · scan
- p. 6Epic shows pride humbled, virtue rewarded, vice punished more fully than tragedy.read · scan
- p. 6–9The hero's virtue raises admiration and imitation; even a vicious quality instructs by showing what to shun.read · scan
- p. 22–23Virgil made his prince wholly virtuous since true virtue begins and ends in piety; Homer made heroes vicious to show vice's deformity.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 11–13Tragic hero neither perfectly virtuous nor wholly wicked; love founded on vice loses audience favour.read · scan
John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and ModernVol. 39
- p. 156Writing should not shock religion or good manners; he chose fables containing instructive morals.read · scan
- p. 164–165Chaucer's persons are vicious or virtuous; Dryden repents his own loose writings and disowns immodesty.read · scan
- p. 166–167Obscene characters and words are improper to reproduce; Dryden leaves such tales untold.read · scan
- p. 173Dryden concedes justice in charges of immorality and profaneness, retracts them, and questions whether Collier's zeal is truly pious.read · scan
- p. 174–175Asks whether the age's morals are more reformed than twenty-five years ago, given the stage's indecency.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young PoetVol. 27
- p. 105Poetry is said to be freed from the narrow notions of virtue and piety.read · scan
- p. 119Sarcastically claims the stage teaches profaneness, lying and loss of modesty and religion.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 74Virtue is hard to respect when revealed in a ridiculous light.read · scan
- p. 136Plot contrasts a misanthropic captain's credulous trust in a treacherous friend and coquette with a sincere friend and loving mistress.read · scan
- p. 138The Horner play cannot be called a school of good morals, though a school of wit.read · scan
Henry Fielding, Preface to Joseph AndrewsVol. 39
- p. 180–181Ugliness, poverty and infirmity are not ridiculous in themselves, only when affected; great vices merit detestation, lesser faults pity.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27
- p. 180–181Addison used wit on the side of virtue, severing gaiety from vice and restoring virtue's dignity.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39
- p. 217Shakespeare sacrifices virtue to convenience, writes without moral purpose, and makes no just distribution of good and evil.read · scan
David Hume, Of the Standard of TasteVol. 27
- p. 218–219Poems confounding the limits of vice and virtue, with vicious manners unmarked by blame, are a real deformity.read · scan
- p. 220Moral principles, unlike speculative opinions, cannot be set aside by a critic; works confounding vice and virtue are lasting blemishes.read · scan
William Collins, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 478–480Music is asked to be devoted to Virtue, Fancy and Art, chaste and sublime as in ancient Greece.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18
- p. 203The actor tries sententious moral maxims about virtue and folly, then gives it up as unsuited to comedy.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 196–197The bard's moral: blessed is she who stops her follies and ceases vice and error when the curtain drops.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 281–282The passage from virtue to truth is already included in the fact of beauty.read · scan
Charles Lamb, On the Tragedies of ShakspereVol. 27
- p. 305–306The play's trivial motives for murder put bad ideas into young men's heads, insulting the morality of common people.read · scan
- p. 308–309Stage Richard shows only crimes and villainy, hiding the wit and genius that qualify horror in reading.read · scan
- p. 309Macbeth's and Richard's crimes matter less than the ambition and intellectual activity prompting them to overleap moral fences.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 336Homer's heroes inspire imitation of friendship and patriotism; a poet treats his age's vices as temporary dress over eternal beauty.read · scan
- p. 336–337Moral goodness arises through imagination and sympathy rather than through ethical schemes and precepts.read · scan
- p. 339–340Presence or absence of poetry in drama corresponds to good or evil in conduct; crime is disarmed when shown as fatal consequence of nature's agencies.read · scan
- p. 341Decayed drama offers specious flatteries of vice and obscenity; comedy turns from sympathetic humor to malignity and contempt.read · scan
Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39
- p. 349–350The grotesque takes the vices and crimes, embodied in Iago, Tartuffe and Falstaff.read · scan
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, What Is a Classic?Vol. 32
- p. 129La Fontaine and Moliere are held to have an all-embracing morality.read · scan
Edgar Allan Poe, The Poetic PrincipleVol. 28
- p. 375–376Taste wars on vice only for its ugliness; Aristotle placed some operations of taste among virtues.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 141–142Women in these works embody faith, piety and devotion.read · scan
Matthew Arnold, The Study of PoetryVol. 28
- p. 79Seriousness is called a grand virtue of poetry, sustained in the great poets but only fitful in Villon.read · scan
‹ 10 · Outline