PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

RFYACE.
Inanner may be P.elt~ .. fjthers will he little else than a repetition
of the old. I make no pretensions to pel feet origir1ality :
I ciaim to be something more than a mere co!apiler. )tuch,
nlJ doubt, is borrowed; but the fact is, tt~t the notes f!'Jr this
"~{)rk hating been preJAred for SClme years, and such thinp
baving heen from time to time inserted in them as appeared
to me worth Jlresening, and such insenions made commonly
without the l1ame of the author from whol!l they were taken,
I shou}(l, at this time, bave found a difficulty in recoverinf:
these names with sufficient exactness to be able to render to
every man Ilis own. Nor, to speak the t~uth! did it appear
to Ole "-orth while to repeat thi! search merely fo!' thie; purpose.
\Vben authorities are relied upon, rJ:smel§ must be
produced: when a discovery has been made in science, it
~3y be unj8s1 to borrow the invention witbout at:knoviedging
tIle author- Bat in an argumentati¥e treatise, and upon
a subject which allows no place for discovery or inventiol.,
prope:-Iy so called; and in wbii:h all that can belong to a wri~
~Gl· is his mode of reasoning, or his judgm~nt of prob:lbiiities;
1 shouJd have thought it superftuous, harl it be.:n easier to
me than it was, to have interrupted my ten, or cr:owrled my
margin, with .-t:ferences to et-ery aUll)or whose sentim( ,lts [
have nl:-~e use ot:. There is, howeVPf. ot!e work~ to which I
o'\-e so muc!1, that it wou!d be Gl.~rat~f\ll not to corafess t!1e
obli~tion: I nJcaa the writin~s 01 the late Abrahanl Tucker,
Esq. part of whicll we~ pcblislled by himself, aljd the
remainder since his rleath, undel the title of "The Light of
Nature pursue(l, by Edv .. rd Searcl., Esq.~' I have found in
ibis writer more origit;al thinking and obsen-ation upon tbe
several subjects that he has taken in hand than in any other,
not to say~ than !ij all other~ put tOJ;ether. His talent a!90
for iJlu!-tratiofl is unriva)led. But his thOllghts are diffused
through a Ic·~)iS~ various, and irregul3r work. I shall at-count
it no rneaIj pr2ise, if j have been sometimes abJe to dis~
into method, to collect into headstand articles, or to exhibit
in more comp3ct and tangible n1asses. wh~t, in that Of her­
\lise excellent perfvrme;Dcc, is ~l.,r~~d Ol'e:too much surtace.
1"he next circtlmstanc\! furwhicn sOlne apology may be ex~
pected, is the jCJiCln;; of moral and political philosClpby together,
or the addition of a book of politics to a s~·stcm of ethics.
A'i&inst this objcction, if it bc made one, J. migbt defend my­
SCi. by the eXd.mple of many appro\·ed \,"rite&-!, 'T!lO have
treated dp officiis h!J1Hil1i, ~t ci"l'ilt, ()r, as ~ome ~honse to express
it, "of the rights and ohlig~tions of man, in "is lndi­
,-jdual and sO!'ial eapClcity,'J in the S..lnle l)ook- J mi;{ht a1lege,
also, that the part a meJTlber of the com mon\vealth shall tdke in
political c.ollteiltioJ)s, the vote he s"all give, th(~ COUfiCi!s he
~hall oppro,-e, the support he shall afford, or the opposi!ioa