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

I'ltEF AC 'f:.
.
Xl
planations which arc nece~sary to render the meaning and
truth of these a~scrtil)ns intelligible.
'!'here is a fault, the opposite of this, wllicll some JlW)ralists
who have adopted a difl'erent, and I thillk a better plan
cf compositio-n, bave not &Jways been careftll to avoid; namely,
the dwe!iing upon verbal and elementary di~tinttions with
a labour and prolixity proportioned much more to the subtlety
of tbe question, than to its value and importance in the
prosecution of the subject. A writer lipan the law of nature,·
whose explicatiolls in e\-ery part of philosophy, though
always diffuse, ar~ I.)ften very successful, has employed three
long sections in endeavouring to prove that " permissions are
llot laws." The discussion of this controversy, ho\vever essentiai
it might be to dialectic precision, waS certainly not
necessary to the progress of a wGrk designed to describe the
duties and obligatiollS of civil lite. 1'hc reader becomes itllpatient
when he is detained by disquisitions wl)ich have DO
other object., than the settling of terms aTld phrase~; 81m,
what is worse, they for wll0se use Such books are cbie8)- intended,
'¥ill not be persuaded to read tbell1 at all. .
I am led to propose these strictures, not by any propensity
to depreciate the labours of my pre.decesSf>rs, i~uch Jess f to
invi~ a comparison between the merits of tl~eir performal1-
ces and my own; but solely by the ecr.~(tel-:\tion,- that wllel1
a writer offers a book to the public, ~Jpon a subject OJ) which
tIle public are already in possession of many others·,he is bOlmd
by a kind of literary justice to inform his r~aders,di5Unctly and
specifically, what it is be professes· t.o supply, and what he
expects to improve. The imperfections above enumeratticl
are those which I have endeavoured ts avoid or remedy.
Of the execution the reader must judge: but this was t~
design.
Concerning the principle of morals it would be preit1&tttre
to speak.; but c{.e!lcerning the Dlclnner of unfolding and ('xplaining
that rrinciple, I have somewhat ,,·hick I wi1ih to be
J)emarked. An experiellce of -nine yeal's in the office of a
public tutor in one of the universities, and in that department
of education to which these chapters relate, afforded
me frequent occasions to observe, that, in discOursing to
young minds upon topics of niorality, it required mtrch nJ()Te
Eain~
to make them perce;ive the difficulty, than to tmder·
. ~tand the soluti.on; that, llnless the SUbject was 80 drawn np
to a point, as to exhibit the full fot·ce of 811 objection, or tire
exact place of • doubt, bei()fe any expl~n~tit;n WiS ~jJtC·I~ed
upon--in other words. unless some currositV was exeited ~­
fore it was attempted (0 be 6~tisfied, the 11l:~OU1· of the ceaen-
• Dr. RuUterforth,· authdr of "lbetitutes cif Natllra!' Law."