Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/524

514, it appears to me that a good ground of defence may be obtained for his averment that the natural and primitive state of mankind is a bellum omnium contra omnes. Hobbes's error lay in his not paying sufficient regard to the provision I just mentioned. He does not allow due weight to the principles which man develops subsequently to his sensational manifestations.

22. On the whole, then, we may conclude that the sensational ethics in the simple form in which we have been viewing them, are true in regard to man in his early and mere sensational state. This truth, however, must be admitted to be rather ideal than real, for, except in early infancy, it is only in the abstract or ideally that we regard man as a merely sensational being. Reason soon comes into play, and then the ethics of sensation lose their truth and cease to be applicable to his nature.