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ss; to use attention or earnest thought; to meditate; especially, to think in relation to moral truth or rules. We can not be said to reflect upon any external object, except so far as that object has been previously perceived, and its image become part and parcel of our intellectual furniture. Sir W. Hamilton. All men…

s of its own acts or states; the capacity for judging rationally, especially in view of a moral rule or standard. By reflection, . . . I would be understood to mean, that notice which the mind takes of its own operations, and the manner of them, by reason whereof there come to be ideas of these operations in the unders…

etter; to amend; to correct; as, to reform a profligate man; to reform corrupt manners or morals. The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it. Swift.

A sliding or falling back, especially into a former bad state, either of body or morals; backsliding; the state of having fallen back. Alas! from what high hope to what relapse Unlooked for are we fallen! Milton.

ove the monotony or sameness of. The poet must . . . sometimes relieve the subject with a moral reflection. Addison.

d man; the Christian faith and practice. Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Washington. Religion will attend you . . . as pleasant and useful companion in every proper place, and every temperate occupation of life. Buckminster.

To be sorry for sin as morally evil, and to seek forgiveness; to cease to love and practice sin. Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish. Luke xii. 3.

stitute an equivalent for; as, to replace a lost document. With Israel, religion replaced morality. M. Arnold.

Abandoned to punishment; hence, morally abandoned and lost; given up to vice; depraved. And strength, and art, are easily outdone By spirits reprobate. Milton.

The official written answer of the pope upon a question of canon law, or morals.

s; conviction; feeling; impression. [Obs.] He retains vivid resentments of the more solid morality. Dr. H. More. It is a greater wonder that so many of them die, with so little resentment of their danger. Jer. Taylor.

raw back again; to hold back from acting, proceeding, or advancing, either by physical or moral force, or by any interposing obstacle; to repress or suppress; to keep down; to curb. Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose! Shak.

Declining from a better to a worse state; as, a retrograde people; retrograde ideas, morals, etc. Bacon.

ing back; to recall. [Obs.] The faint sprite he did revoke again, To her frail mansion of morality. Spenser.

y; obedience to lawful authority, divine or human; freedom from guilt, -- the opposite of moral wrong.

Moral rectitude; righteousness. [Obs.] Wyclif. We fail of perfect rightfulness. Sir P. Sidney.

According to justice; according to the divine will or moral rectitude; uprightly; as, duty rightly performed.

dulgence; strictness; as, the rigor of criticism; to execute a law with rigor; to enforce moral duties with rigor; -- opposed to Ant: lenity.

upon impropriety; dangerously close to, or suggestive of, what is indecent or of doubtful morality; as, a risqué story. Henry Austin.

gods of antiquity. Milton. And many a holy text around she strews, That teach the rustic moralist to die. Gray. She had a rustic, woodland air. Wordsworth.