[The End May Justify the Means]
Whatever act is necessary to an end, and ascertained to be necessary and proportionate both to the end and the agent, takes its nature from that end. This premised, the proposition is innocent that ends may justify means. Remember, however, the important distinction: Unius facti diversi fines esse possunt: unius actionis non possunt.
I have somewhere read this remark: Omne meritum est voluntarium, aut voluntate originis, aut origine voluntatis. Quaintly as this is expressed, it is well worth consideration, and gives the true meaning of Baxter's famous saying, "Hell is paved with good intentions."
[Negative Thought]
On this calm morning of the l3th of November, 1809, it occurs to me, that it is by a negation and voluntary act of no thinking that we think of earth, air, water, &c. as dead. It is necessary for our limited powers of consciousness, that we should be brought to this negative state, and that this state should pass into custom; but it is likewise necessary that at times we should awake and step forward; and this is effected by those extenders of our consciousness sorrow, sickness, poetry, and religion. The truth is, we stop in the sense of life just when we are not forced to go on, and then adopt a permission of our feelings for a precept of our reason.