MORAL

1. Pertaining or relating to the conscience or moral sense or to the general principles of right conduct. 2. Cognizable or enforceable only by the conscience or by the principles of right conduct, as distinguished from positive law. 3. Depending upon or resulting from probability; raising a belief or conviction in the mind independent of strict or logical proof. 4. Involving or affecting the moral sense; as in the phrase “moral insanity.” —Moral actions. Those only in which men have knowledge to guide them, and a will to choose for themselves. Ruth. Inst. lib. 1, c i. —Moral certainty. In the law of criminal evidence. That degree of assurance which induces a man of sound mind to act, without doubt, upon the conclusions to which it leads. Wills, Circ. Ev. 7. A certainty that convinces and directs the understanding and satisfies the reason and judgment of those who are bound to act conscientiously upon it. State v. Orr, 64 Mo. 339; Bradley y. State, 31 Ind. 492; Ross v. Montana Union Ry. Co. (0. C.) 45 Fed. 425; Pharr v. State, 10 Tex. App. 485; Territory v. McAndrews, 3 Mont. 158. A high degree of impression of the truth of a fact, falling short of absolute certainty, but sufficient to justify a verdict of guilty, even in a capital case. See Burrill, Cire. Ev. 198The hrase ‘“‘moral certainty” has been introduced into our jurisprudence from the publicists and metaphysicians, and signifies only a very high degree of probability. It was observed by Puffendorf that, “‘when we declare such a thing to be poly certain, because it has been confirmed by credible witnesses, this moral certitude is nothing else but a strong presumpuce grounded on probable reasons, and which very seldom fails and deceives us.” “Probable evidence,” says Bishop Butler, in the opening sentence of his Analogy, “is essentially distinguished from demonstrative by this; that it admits of degrees, and of all variety of them, from the highest moral certainty to the very lowest presumption.” Com. v. Costley, 118 Mass. 23.—Moral evidence. See EVIDENCE.—Moral fraud. This phrase is one of the less usual designations of “actual” or “positive” fraud or “fraud in fact,” as distinguished from “constructive” fraud or “fraud in law.” It means fraud which involves actual guilt, a wrongful purpose, ormoral obliquity—Moral hazard. See HazARD.—Moral insanity. See INSANITY. Moral law. The law of conscience; the aggregate of those rules and principles of ethics which relate to right and wrong conduct and prescribe the standards to which the actions of men should conform in their dealings with each other. See Moore v. Strickling, 46 W. Va. 515, 33 S. E. 274, 50 L. R. A. 279.—Moral obligation. See OBLIGATION.

1. Conformed to rules of right: as, a moral character, q. v. 2. Condemned on ethical considerations; perpetrated or existing in fact: as, moral fraud, q. v. 3. Not of legal sanction; not imposed or enforced by positive law; opposed to legal, immoral: as, a moral – consideration, duty, obligation, qq. v. See also RIGHT, 1. 4. Inhering in the affections, inclinations, and temper: as, moral insanity, q. v. 5. Sufficient in degree to authorize action; established by proof, beyond a reasonable doubt: as, moral - certainty, evidence, proof, qq. v. Morals. Manners, conduct, deportment. Offenses against good morals include indecency, obscenity, lascivious carriage, exposures of the person, public drunkenness, gambling, and the like.7 A contract opposed to good morals, that is, sound 1 L. monere, to remind, advise. 2 White v. Luning, 93 U. S. 524-25 (1676); Land Co. v. Saunders, 103 id. 316 (1880); Morse v. Rogers, 118 Mass. 578 (1875), cases. See Mead v. Case, 33 Barb. 204 (1860); Cooke v. Millard, 65 N. Y. 363 (1875). 4 A. S. mot, a meeting. • Bartemeyer v. Iowa, 18 Wall. 135 (1873). L. mos, mor-, manner, custom. See 2 Bl. Com. 42; 36 N. Y. 238. obligation resting upon any immoral consideration, a contract which is an incentive to crime, offensive to decency, or pernicious in its consequences. See LEGAL, Illegal. As the end of human law is to regulate the behavior of men as members of society, they have no concern with other than social or relative duties. The man who keeps his wickedness to himself, and does not offend against the rules of public decency, is out of the reach of such laws. But if he makes his vices public, though they be such as seem principally to affect himself, they then become, by their example, of pernicious effects to society; and, therefore, it is then the business of human law's to correct them. Public sobriety is a relative duty, enjoined by the laws.1 See OBSCENE; POLICE, 2; RELIGION; SUNDAY.

Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects right and wrong, so far as they are properly subject to rules. Keep at the least within the compass of moral actions, which have in them vice or virtue. Hooker. Mankind is broken loose from moral bands. Dryden. She had wandered without rule or guidance in a moral wilderness. Hawthorne. Conformed to accepted rules of right; acting in conformity with such rules; virtuous; just; as, a moral man. Used sometimes in distinction from religious; as, a moral rather than a religious life. The wiser and more moral part of mankind. Sir M. Hale. Capable of right and wrong action or of being governed by a sense of right; subject to the law of duty. A moral agent is a being capable of those actions that have a moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense. J. Edwards. Acting upon or through one's moral nature or sense of right, or suited to act in such a manner; as, a moral arguments; moral considerations. Sometimes opposed to material and physical; as, moral pressure or support. Supported by reason or probability; practically sufficient; -- opposed to legal or demonstrable; as, a moral evidence; a moral certainty. Serving to teach or convey a moral; as, a moral lesson; moral tales. Moral agent, a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong. -- Moral certainty, a very high degree or probability, although not demonstrable as a certainty; a probability of so high a degree that it can be confidently acted upon in the affairs of life; as, there is a moral certainty of his guilt. -- Moral insanity, insanity, so called, of the moral system; badness alleged to be irresponsible. -- Moral philosophy, the science of duty; the science which treats of the nature and condition of man as a moral being, of the duties which result from his moral relations, and the reasons on which they are founded. -- Moral play, an allegorical play; a morality. [Obs.] -- Moral sense, the power of moral judgment and feeling; the capacity to perceive what is right or wrong in moral conduct, and to approve or disapprove, independently of education or the knowledge of any positive rule or law. -- Moral theology, theology applied to morals; practical theology; casuistry.

The doctrine or practice of the duties of life; manner of living as regards right and wrong; conduct; behavior; -- usually in the plural. Corrupt in their morals as vice could make them. South. The inner meaning or significance of a fable, a narrative, an occurrence, an experience, etc.; the practical lesson which anything is designed or fitted to teach; the doctrine meant to be inculcated by a fiction; a maxim. Thus may we gather honey from the weed, And make a moral of the devil himself. Shak. To point a moral, or adorn a tale. Johnson. We protest against the principle that the world of pure comedy is one into which no moral enters. Macaulay. A morality play. See Morality, 5.

To moralize. [Obs.] Shak.

A township in Shelby County, Indiana, United States.

To moralize.

A surname from Spanish.