captus est, optimè accommodata, atque ad sensus penitùs permanantia, sibi videntur. Quumque nostra methodus, istis quae nuper invaluerunt, non paullum discrepet; si quid ea afferat [quae discentium captui accommodatissima sibi videtur. Si quid autem in nostra methodo sit quod discipulis prodesse potest, eorum intererit, breve aliquod in manibus terere syntagma, quod rerum seriem, summaque disputationum capita exhibeat; ipsisque omnia vivâ voce fusius explicata, in memoriam revocet. <iii>
{Ciceronis de officiis libros suo merito laudatissimos, viri quidam docti, tanquam Ethices totius summarium complexos absolutum, inconsideratè nuper laudarunt; quum ipse saepius testetur, totam de virtute summoque bono doctrinam, Ethices partem longè praestantissimam et maximè necessariam, alibi quaerendam; cujus etiam locos praecipuos, in libris de Finibus et Tusculanis, ipse antea tractaverat: quinetiam moneat, se, in libris de Officiis, praecepta tradidisse, Stoicos potissimùm secutum; quibus tantum inter virtutes, et officia ex virtute, discrimen esse placuit, ut haec in rerum mediarum, quae nec bonae sint nec malae, numero habuerint. Docent itaque hi de officiis libri, qua ratione, viri honesto loco nati, virtutumque cognitione satis ante instructi, vita sit instituenda, ut honestati verae is semper adhaerescens, opes, potentiam, gratiam, honores, et gloriam consequatur.
In hoc libello denuo excudendo, quaedam addenda videbantur, et non pauca corrigenda. Cogitabam etiam claros in hac philosophia scriptores, et antiquos et nuperos passim citare, locosque librorum commonstrare. Verum <iv> reputabam; hoc iis solùm profuturum quorum in manibus essent ipsi libri; qui nullo fere negotio, consultis librorum indicibus, eadem sibi reperire possent: labori igitur et ingrato et parum necessario peperci. Vix ipsos latet in Philosophia tyrones, Ethices fundamenta, et generalem omnem de moribus doctrinam, apud antiquos modo laudatos, et Cumberlandum, comitemque de Shaftesbury, copiose explicatam esse: nullumque de jure naturali et gentium locum, scriptores claros Grotium et Puffendorfium, Barbeyracii commentariis uberrimis auctos, Harringtonium, Lockium, et Bynkershokium, ne plures memorem, intactum reliquisse: apud Barbeyracium etiam reperiuntur nuperorum nomina, qui singulas quaestiones plenius exposuerunt: quorum libri, iis qui uberiores de locis singulis disquisitiones perspicere volunt, sedulo sunt evolvendi.}
Vobis, Juvenes, non Eruditis, haec scribuntur elementa: quibus paulum immorati, ad majora progredimini et ampliora; ad omnis scientiae, omnis elegantiae, artiumque bonarum inventores et excultores eximios scriptores Graecos et Romanos <perlegendos>. Dumque hos exprimitis, <v> puriores sacrarum literarum, quae miseris mortalibus certam vitae beatae spem reducunt, fontes aditote; ut animos vestros omni virtute exornetis, ad omnia officia honestiora instruatis, cognitionisque sitim ingenuam et laudabilem expleatis. {Animis igitur vestris medeatur Philosophia; inanes solicitudines detrahat, cupiditatibus liberet; pellat timores: ita morati sitis, ita animo et vita constituti, ut ratio postulat: neque hanc disciplinam ostentationem scientiae, sed legem vitae sanctissimam putetis, quam nemo sine scelere, nemo impunè spreverit; cujusque monitis parere, quantum animo conniti possumus, summa est naturae nostrae dignitas, summa sapientia, vitaeque prosperitas.}
Βίον αιροῦ τὸν ἄριστον,· ἡδὺν δ’ αὐτὸν ἡ συνήθεια ποιήσει.
Pythag.1
Ἤδη οὐ̑ν ἀξίωσον σεαυτὸν βιου̑ν ὡς τέλειον καὶ προκόπτοντα· καὶ πα̂ν τὸ βέλτιστον ϕαινόμενον ἔστω σοι νόμος ἀπαράβατος
Epictet. Enchir.2
Ἀνδρας γενομένους ὁ θεὸς παραδίδωσι τῇ ἐμϕύτῳ συνειδήσει ϕυλάττειν, ταύτης ὀῦν ϕυλακῦς μηδαμῶς καταϕρονητεόν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τῷ Θεῷ ἀπάρεστον, και τῷ ἰδίῳ συνειδότι ἐχθροι ἐσόμεθα.
Ejusd. Fragment.3
Αἱροῦ πρότερον τὰς επιθυμίας κολάζειν, ἤ διὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας κολάζεσθαι.
Ejusd.4
Ἑνὶ τέρπου καὶ προσαναπαύου, τὡ ἀπὸ πράξεως κοινωνικη̑ς μεταβαίνειν ἐπὶ πρα̂ξιν κοινωνικὴν σὺν μνήμῃ Θεοη̑.
M. Antonin.5
Ἐπὶ πὰση ὁρμῃ̑ καὶ σμικρου̑ καὶ μεγάλου πράγματος Θεὸν ἀεί που δει̑ καλου̑σιν.
Plato, in Tim.6
Ἀθανάτοις τε Θεοι̑ς καὶ ἡμι̑ν χάρματα δοίης.
incerti Poetae7
TO THE STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITIES.
The [In the] celebrated division of philosophy among the ancients {was into the rational or logical, the natural, and the moral. Their}<the branch that was called> moral philosophy contained these parts, ethicks taken more strictly, teaching the nature of virtue and regulating the internal dispositions; and the knowledge of the law of nature. This later contained, 1. the doctrine of private rights, or the laws <and rights> obtaining in natural liberty. 2. Oeconomicks, or the laws and rights of the several members of a family; and 3. Politicks, shewing the various plans of civil government, and the rights of states with respect to each other. The following books contain the elements of these several branches of moral philosophy; which if they are carefully studied may give the youth an easier access to the well known and admired works either of the ancients, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Cicero; or of the moderns, Grotius, Cumberland, Puffendorf, Harrington and others, upon this branch of philosophy.
The learned will at once discern how much of this compend is taken from the writings of others, from Cicero and Aristotle; and to name no other moderns, from Puffendorf’s smaller work, de officio hominis et civis, which that worthy and ingenious man the late Professor Gerschom Carmichael of Glasgow, by far the best commentator on that book, has so supplied and corrected that the notes are of much more value than the text. The reasons <ii> of my undertaking to compose anew a compend of this branch of philosophy, after so many such compends have been published by very learned men, were these; Every teacher must use his own judgment on these subjects, use his own method, and that disposition of the several parts, and those arguments which seem to him of greatest force, best suited to the apprehensions of the students, and aptest to touch their hearts on such subjects. And as the method and order which pleased me most is pretty different from what has of late prevailed; if it can be of any advantage in education, it must be of use to the students to have in their hands an abridgement, containing the method and the principal heads of argument, to recall to their memories the points more largely insisted upon in their lectures.1
The design of Ciceros books de officiis, which are so very justly admired by all, has been mistaken inconsiderately by some very ingenious men, who speak of these books as intended for a compleat system of morals or ethicks. Whereas Cicero expresly declares,
