[111] It may conduce to the readier comprehension of this point if I say, that the equivoque consists in confounding the almost technical sense of the _noun substantive_, right, (a sense most often determined by the genitive case following, as the right of property, the right of husbands to chastise their wives, and so forth) with the popular sense of the _adjective_, right: though this likewise has, if not a double sense, yet a double application;--the first, when it is used to express the fitness of a mean to a relative end, for example, "the _right_ way to obtain the _right_ distance at which a picture should be examined," and the like; and the other, when it expresses a perfect conformity and commensurateness with the immutable idea of equity, or perfect rectitude. Hence the close connexion between the words righteousness and _god_liness, that is, godlikeness.
I should be tempted to subjoin a few words on a predominating doctrine closely connected with the present argument--the Paleyan principle of GENERAL CONSEQUENCES; but the inadequacy of this Principle as a criterion of Right and Wrong, and above all its utter unfitness as a Moral _Guide_ have been elsewhere so fully stated ('The Friend,' vol. ii. Essay xi.[112]), that even in again referring to the subject, I must shelter myself under Seneca's rule, that what we cannot too frequently think of, we cannot too often be made to recollect. It is, however, of immediate importance to the point in discussion, that the reader should be made to see how altogether incompatible the principle of judging by General Consequences is with the Idea of an Eternal, Omnipresent, and Omniscient Being;--that he should be made aware of the absurdity of attributing _any_ form of Generalization to the All-perfect Mind. To _generalize_ is a faculty and function of the human understanding, and from the imperfection and limitation of the understanding are the use and the necessity of generalizing derived. Generalization is a Substitute for Intuition, for the power of _intuitive_ (that is, immediate) knowledge. As a substitute, it is a gift of inestimable value to a finite intelligence, such as _man_ in his present state is endowed with and capable of exercising; but yet a _substitute_ only, and an imperfect one to boot. To attribute it to God is the grossest anthropomorphism: and grosser instances of anthropomorphism than are to be found in the controversial writings on Original Sin and Vicarious Satisfaction, the records of superstition do not supply.