Actions are denominated virtuous or vicious, from their
motives, not from their tendencies; tendencies that are not perceived, or not felt at
the time of action, never determine the moral character of the action. If such a rule of moral judgment were for an instant admitted, many an action would become virtuous which the world had never suspected of being as such; nay, for ought we can tell, all moral evil itself might be found in the end to be so.
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