ELEMENTS

OF

MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

PRELIMINARY PRINCIPLES AND DISCUSSIONS.

Man may be viewed under several aspects, — he consistsof body and soul, —■ he has both an animal and a rational na-ture, — he is both an intellectual and a moral being, — he re-quires an education suited to his circumstances in this life,and to his destiny and prospects in the life to come. On theseseveral parts of human nature, several sciences have been found-ed, having for their object to investigate and explain the struc-ture of the human body, and the faculties of the human un-derstanding. These several branches of human nature, — theanimal, intellectual, and moral, have been recognised at all timesand by all nations ; and the distinctions on which they rest, areeven seen in the structure of every language.* It is the object

* “ Words are signs of thought; and from words themselves (without follow-ing them through all their inflexions and combinations in the finished structureof a language) we may see into the natural feelings and judgments of men,before they become warped by the prejudices of sect, or the subtilties of sys-tem. If, in reading the ancient writers, we meet with words describing virtueand vice, honor and dishonor, guilt and shame, coupled with the strongestepithets of praise or condemnation ; then we are certain that those things ex-isted as realities before they became words; or at least, that in the minds ofthose, who, during the early progress of society, built up the ancient languages,they were considered as realities; and on that account (and that account on-ly) had their representatives among the symbols of thought. I believe wemight in this way make a near approach to a true system of moral philosophy;and our progress would at every step record a series of judgments, not derived1