Men may act according to their strongest principle, and yet violate their nature, as when a man, urged by present gratification, incurs certain ruin.  The violation of nature, in this instance, may be expressed as disproportion.

There is thus a difference in kind between passions; self-love is superior to temporary appetite.

Passion or Appetite means a tendency towards certain objects with no regard to any other objects.  Reflection or Conscience steps in to protect the interests that these would lead us to sacrifice.  Surely, therefore, this would be enough to constitute superiority.  Any other passion taking the lead is a case of usurpation.

We can hardly form a notion of Conscience without this idea of superiority.  Had it might, as it has right, it would govern the world.

Were there no such supremacy, all actions would be on an equal footing.  Impiety, profaneness, and blasphemy would be as suitable as reverence; parricide would justify itself by the right of the strongest.

Hence human nature is made up of a number of propensities in union with this ruling principle; and as, in civil government, the constitution is infringed by strength prevailing over authority, so the nature of man is violated when the lower faculties triumph over conscience.  Man has a rule of right within, if he will honestly attend to it.  Out of this arrangement, also, springs Obligation; the law of conscience is the law of our nature.  It carries its authority with it; it is the guide assigned by the Author of our nature.

He then replies to the question, ’Why should we be concerned about anything out of or beyond ourselves?’ Supposing we do possess in our nature a regard to the well-being of others, why may we not set that aside as being in our way to our own good.

The answer is, We cannot obtain our own good without having regard to others, and undergoing the restraints prescribed by morality.  There is seldom any inconsistency between our duty and our interest.  Self-love, in the present world, coincides with virtue.  If there are any exceptions, all will be set right in the final distribution of things.  Conscience and self-love, if we understand our true happiness, always lead us the same way.

Such is a brief outline of the celebrated ’Three Sermons on Human Nature.’  The radical defect of the whole scheme lies in its Psychological basis.  Because we have, as mature human beings, in civilized society, a principle of action called Conscience, which we recognize as distinct from Self-love and Benevolence, as well as from the Appetites and Passions, Butler would make us believe that this is, from the first, a distinct principle of our nature.  The proper reply is to analyze Conscience; showing at the same time, from its very great discrepancies in different minds, that it is a growth, or product, corresponding to the education and the circumstances of each, although of course involving the common elements of the mind.