BOOK I.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.

CHAP. I.

DEFINITION AND USE OF THE SCIENCE.

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ORAL PHILOSOPHY, Morality, Ethics, Casuistry, Natural Law, mean all the fame thing; namely, That fcience which teaches men their duty and the reafons of it.

The use of fuch a ftudy depends upon this, that, without it, the rules of life, by which men are ordinarily governed, oftentimes mislead them, through a defect either in the rule, or in the application.

These rules are, the Law of Honour, the Law of the Land, and the Scriptures.

CHAP

CHAP. II.

THE LAW OF HONOUR.

HE Law of Honour is a fyftem of rules

TH conftructed by people of fashion, and

calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one another; and for no other purpose.

Confequently, nothing is adverted to by the Law of Honour, but what tends to incommode this intercourse.

Hence this law only prefcribes and regulates the duties betwixt equals; omitting fuch as relate to the Supreme Being, as well as thofe which we owe to our inferiors.

For which reason, profanenefs, neglect of public worship or private devotion, cruelty to fervants, rigorous treatment of tenants or other dependants, want of charity to the poor, injuries done to tradefmen by infolvency or delay of payment, with numberless examples of the fame kind, are accounted no breaches of honour; becaufe a man is not a lefs agreeable companion for these vices, nor the worse to deal with, in thofe

thofe concerns which are ufually tranfacted between one gentleman and another.

Again, the Law of Honour, being constituted by men occupied in the pursuit of pleasure, and for the mutual conveniency of fuch men, will be found, as might be expected from the character and defign of the law-makers, to be, in most inftances, favourable to the licentious indulgence of the natural paffions.

Thus it allows of fornication, adultery, drunkennefs, prodigality, duelling, and of revenge in the extreme; and lays no ftrefs upon the virtues opposite to these.

CHAP. III.

THE LAW OF THE LAND.

'HAT part of mankind, who are beneath

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the Law of Honour, often make the Law of the Land their rule of life; that is, they are fatisfied with themselves, fo long as they do or omit nothing, for the doing or omitting of which the law can punish them.

Whereas every fyftem of human laws, confidered as a rule of life, labours under the two following defects.

I. Human laws omit many duties, as not objects of compulfion; fuch as piety to God, bounty to the poor, forgiveness of injuries, edúcation of children, gratitude to benefactors.

The law never fpeaks but to command, nor commands but where it can compel; confequently thofe duties, which by their nature must be voluntary, are left out of the statute-book, as lying beyond the reach of its operation and authority.

II. Human laws permit, or, which is the fame thing, fuffer to go unpunished, many crimes, because they are incapable of being defined by any previous description-of which nature are luxury, prodigality, partiality in voting at thofe elections in which the qualifications of the candidate ought to determine the fuccefs, caprice in the difpofition of men's fortunes at their death, disrespect to parents, and a multitude of fimilar examples.

For this is the alternative; either the Law muft define beforehand and with precision the offences which it punishes, or it must be left to the discretion of the magiftrate to determine upon each particular accufation, whether it conftitutes

that

that offence which the law defigned to punish, or not; which is in effect leaving to the magiftrate to punish or not to punish, at his pleasure, the individual who is brought before him : which is juft fo much tyranny. Where, therefore, as in the inftances above mentioned, the distinction between right and wrong is of too fubtile or of too fecret a nature to be ascertained by any preconcerted language, the law of most countries, especially of free ftates, rather than commit the liberty of the subject to the discretion of the magiftrate, leaves men in fuch cafes to themselves.

CHA P. IV.

WH

THE SCRIPTURES.

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HOEVER expects to find in the Scriptures a specific direction for every doubt that arifes, looks for more than he will meet with. And to what a magnitude fuch a detail of particular precepts would have enlarged the facred volume, may be partly understood from the following confideration. The laws of this country, including the acts of the legisla

ture,