1 any notice of acts of parliament; or fhould 66 by which it will be fhewn that they give The manner alfo, in which modern writers have treated of fubjects of morality, is, in my judgment, liable to much exception. It has become of late a fashion to deliver moral institutes in ftrings or series of detached propofitions, without fubjoining a continued argument or regular differtation to any of them This fententious, apothegmatizing ftyle, by crowding propofitions and paragraphs too fast upon the mind, and by carrying the eye of the reader from fubject to fubject in too quick a fucceffion, gains not a fufficient hold upon the attention, to leave either the memory furnished, or the understanding fatisfied. However ufeful a fyllabus of topics, or a series of propofitions may be in the hands of a lecturer, or as a guide to a ftudent, who is fuppofed to confult other books, or to inftitute upon each fubject researches of his own, the method is by ⚫no means convenient for ordinary readers; because few readers are fuch thinkers as to want only a hint to set their thoughts at work upon; or fuch as will paufe and tarry at every * Preface to The Preceptor, by Dr. Johnson. propofition, till they have traced out its dependency, proof, relation, and confequences, before they permit themselves to ftep on to another. A refpectable. writer of this clafs has comprised his doctrine of flavery in the three following propofitions. * "No one is born a flave, because every one is born with all his original rights." "No one can become a flave, because no one from being a perfon can, in the lan' guage of the Roman law, become a thing, or fubject of property.": 66 "The fuppofed property of the master in "the flave, therefore; is matter of ufurpation, "not of right." It may be poffible to deduce from these few adages fuch a theory of the primitive rights of human nature, as will evince the illegality of slavery; but surely an author requires too much of his reader, when he expects him to make thefe deductions for himself, or to fupply, perhaps from fome remote chapter of the fame treatise, the several proofs and explanations; which are neceffary to render the meaning and truth of these affertions intelligible. There is a fault, the oppofite of this, which fome moralifts who have adopted a different, and, I think, a better plan of compofition, have not always been careful to avoid namely, the dwelling upon verbal and elementary diftinctions, with a labour and prolixity, propor tioned much more to the fubtlety of the queftion, than to its value and importance in the * Dr. Ferguson, author of " Inftitutes of Moral Philofophy," 1767. profe profecution of the fubject. A writer. upon the law of nature, whose explications in every part of philofophy, though always diffuse, are often very fuccefsful, has employed, three dong fections in endeavouring to prove, that per"miffions are not laws" The difcuffion of this controverfy, however effential it might be to dialectic precifion, was certainly not neceffary to the progress of a work defigned to defcribe the duties and obligations of civil Jife The reader becomes impatient when he is! detained by difquifitions which have no other object than the fettling of terms and phrofes; and, what is worse, they, for whofe ufe füchsbooks are chiefly, intended, will not be perfuaded to read them at all. of of hotamotts en 1 am led to propose these frictures, not by any propensity to depreciate the labours of my predeceffors, much less to invite a comparison between the merits of their performances, and my own; but folely by the confideration, that -when a writer offers a book to the public upon a fubject on which the public are already in poffeffion of many others, he is bound by a kind of literary justice, to inform his readers diftinctly and fpecifically, what it is, he profeffes to fupply, and what he expects to improve. The imperfections above, enumerated are, thofe which I have endeavoured to avoid or remedy. Of the execution the reader muft judge: but this was the defign. Concerning the principle of morals it would be premature to fpeak; but concerning the Dr. Rutherforth, author of "Inftitutes of Natural "Law." manner of unfolding and explaining that principle, have fomewhat which I wish to be remarked. An experience of nine years in the office of a public tutor in one of the univerfities, and in that department of education to which thefe chapters relate, afforded me frequent occafion to obferve, that, in difcourfing to young minds upon topics of morality, it required much more pains to make them perceive the difficulty, than to understand the folution; that, unless the subject was fo drawn up to a point, as to exhibit the full force of an objection, or the exact place of a doubt, before any explanation was entered upon, in other words, unless fome curiofity was excited before it was attempted to be fatisfied, the labour of the teacher was loft. When information was not defired, it was feldom, I found, retained. I have made this obfervation my guide in the following work; that is, upon each occafion I have endeavoured, before I fuffered myself to proceed in the difquifition, to put the reader in complete poffeffion of the queftion; and to do it in the way that I thought most likely to his own doubts and folicitude about it. In pursuing the principle of morals through the detail of cafes to which it is applicable, I have had in view to accommodate both the choice of the fubjects, and the manner of handling them, to the fituations which arife in the life of an inhabitant of this country in thefe times. This is the thing that I think to be principally wanting in former treatises; and, perhaps, the chief advantage which will be found in mine. I have examined no doubts, I have ftir up I have difcuffed no obfcurities, I have encɔuntered no errors, I have adverted to no controverfies, but what I have seen actually to exift. If fome of the questions treated of appear to a more inftructed reader minute or puerile, I defire fuch reader to be affured that I have found them occafions of difficulty to young minds; and what I have obferved in young minds, fhould expect to meet with in all who approach thefe fubjects for the first time. Upon each article of human duty, I have combined with the conclufions of reason the declarations of fcripture, when they are to be had, as of co-ordinate authority, and as both terminating in the fame fanctions. In the manner of the work, I have endeavoured so to attemper the oppofite plans above animadverted upon, as that the reader may not accuse me either of too much hafte, or of too much delay. I have beftowed upon each fubject enough of differtation to give a body and fubftance to the chapter in which it is treated of, as well as coherence and perfpicuity on the other hand, I have feldom, I hope, exercised the patience of the reader by the length and prolixity of my effays, or difappointed that patience at laft by the tenuity and unimportance of the conclufion. There are two particulars in the following work, for which it may be thought neceffary that I fhould offer fome excufe. The firft of which is, that I have fcarcely ever referred to any other book, or mentioned the name of the author whofe thoughts, and fometimes, poffibly, whofe very expreffions I have adopted. My |