ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. xxiii

PART IV.

PERSONAL DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS, OR THE DUTIES OF

MEN TO THEMSELVES.

Page

CHAPTER I. The Duty of preserving Life and Health, includ-ing a Discussion of Suicide.

Christianity looks upon our life and health, and all our other endowments, asso many talents intrusted to our administration, for the use of which we

are responsible,.271

The duty of preserving life and health means much more than abstainingfrom positive and known injury to either; — it includes the use of the

means of preserving them,.272

Suicide examined and shown to be opposed by philosophy, as well as by re-ligion both natural and revealed,.272

CHAPTER II. Improvement of the Corporeal Faculties.

A good constitution of body, and a high improvement of the corporeal pow-ers., are the result of a judicious and persevering physical education, . . 278

The aid of the Roman satirist, Juvenal, used, in describing the perfection ofthe physical, intellectual, and moral man,.278

CHAPTER III. Cultivation of the Powers of the Mind.

Mental cultivation and excellence of whatever kind are, with slight qualifi-cations, the fruit of the personal sacrifices, efforts, and energy of the indi-vidual, .279

The various faculties of our nature should be cultivated in due proportion,

harmony, and consistency with each other,.280

The ancient opinion, that scientific knowledge is attainable but by a few,must, with the present facilities of printing, be received with much quali-fication, .281

CHAPTER IV. Cultivation of a strong, delicate, and perma-nent Sense of Duty.

The being governed by a sense of duty comprises a suitable regard to everyconsideration, principle, sentiment, opinion, relation, fact, and circum-stance, from which any duty of any kind can spring,.289

CHAPTER V. The Duty of cultivating Personal Religion andthe Personal Virtues.

The sentiments of Lord Chatham and of the late Sir Humphrey Davy on

the importance of cultivating personal religion, cited,.291

The importance of cultivating the personal virtues and the best means ofdoing so, illustrated by the examples of President Edwards and Dr.

Franklin,...294

The cultivation of personal religion and of the personal virtues contributesessentially to health, length of days, and success in the business of life, 300