Before the eighteenth century, almost all moralists viewed reason more in terms of intelligence than ratiocination; reason was therefore understood as “the organ of morality.” Lewis continues: “The moral conflict was depicted as one between Passion and Reason, not between Passion and ‘conscience,’ or ‘duty,’ or ‘goodness.’ Prospero, in forgiving his enemies, declares that he is siding, not with his charity or mercy, but with ‘his nobler reason’ (Tempest, V, i, 26). The explanation is that nearly all of them believed the fundamental moral maxims were intellectually grasped.
