Man begins his course devoid of all virtues, and unable for a long time to act consciously and responsibly. The soul is a blank canvas which is to receive its character at a later date from habits of different kinds and the actions accompanying them, from the virtues and vices and the acts of virtue and of vice. There is a preliminary distinction of virtues into intellectual and moral, corresponding to the two master-faculties of our nature, the intelligence and the will. They have regard respectively to the cognisance of truth, or to the guidance of our affections and external actions. The intellectual virtues are rather of an abstract kind, the moral are practical; yet these two are closely connected in many ways. Reasoning, whether true or false, precedes the action and conduces to forming its determinate moral character. The moral sense, such as it is, good or perverted, often influences the apprehensions and judgments of the intellect. Purely intellectual vices free from moral culpability are yet an evil tree, which will bring forth evil fruit in the long run. Ignorance, prejudice, speculative error, defects of prudence, of sagacity, of science, have injurious and very far-reaching effects on the moral life. Ideas are very different from actions, and are not always in correspondence with them; they seem to be intangible and confined to the speculative sphere, but ultimately they work themselves out into practical results. Do not underrate the importance of intellectual virtues, of full knowledge, unbiased decisions, honest facing of difficulties, readiness to acknowledge mistakes, fairness towards opponents, confidence in truth that it can do no harm.
