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CHAPTER 2.

ABRIDGMENT OF THE PRINCIPLES OF MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. BY WM. PALEY, D. D.

SECTION I.

Definition and use of the science.

1 Moral philosophy, morality, ethics, casuistry, natural law, mean all the same thing; namely, That science which teaches men their duty, and the reasons of it. The use of

such a study depends upon this, that, without it, the rules of life by which men are ordinarily governed, oftentimes mislead them, through a defect either in the rule, or in the application. These rules are, the law of honor, the law of the land, and the scriptures.

2 The law of honor.-The law of honor is a system of rules constructed by people of fashion, and calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one another; and for no other purpose. Consequently, nothing is adverted to by the law of honor, but what tends to incommode this intercourse. Hence, this law only prescribes and regulates the duties betwixt equals; omitting such as relate to the Supreme Being, as well as those which we owe to our inferiors.

3 The law of the land.-That part of mankind who are beneath the law of honor, often make the law of the land their rule of life; that is, they are satisfied with themselves, so long as they do or omit nothing, for the doing or omitting of which the law can punish them.

4 Whereas, every system of human laws, considered as a rule of life, labors under the two following defects: 1. Human laws omit many duties, as not objects of compulsion; such as piety to God, bounty to the poor, forgiveness of injuries, education of children, gratitude to benefactors. 2. Human laws permit, or what is the same, suffer to go unpunished, many crimes, because they are incapable of being defined by any previous description: of which nature, are luxury, prodigality, disrespect to parents, &c.

5 The Scriptures.-Whoever expects to find in the scriptures a specific direction for every moral doubt that arises, looks for more than he will meet with. And to what a magnitude such a detail of particular precepts would have enlarged the sacred volume, may be partly understood from the following consideration :—

6 The laws of this country, (England,) including the acts

of the legislature, and the decisions of our supreme courts of justice, are not contained in fewer than fifty folio volumes; and yet it is not once in ten attempts that you can find the case you look for, in any law book whatever; to say nothing of those numerous points of conduct, concerning which the law professes not to prescribe or determine any thing.

7 Had then the same particularity, which obtains in human law so far as they go, been attempted in the scriptures, throughout the whole extent of morality, it is manifest they would have been by much too bulky to be either read or circulated; or rather, as St. John says, "even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written."

SECTION II.
Human Happiness.

1 It will be our business to show, if we can: I. What human happiness does not consist in; II. What it does consist in.

2 First then, happiness does not consist in the pleasures of sense, in whatever profusion or variety they may be enjoyed. By the pleasures of sense I mean, as well the animal gratifi cations of eating, drinking, &c. as the more refined pleasures of music, painting, architecture, gardening, splendid shows, theatric exhibitions, and the pleasures, lastly, of active sports, as of hunting, shooting, fishing, &c. For,

3 1st. These pleasures continue but a little while at a time. This is true of them all, especially of the grosser sort of them. Laying aside the preparation and the expectation, and computing strictly the actual sensation, we shall be surprised to find how inconsiderable a portion of our time they occupy, how few hours, in the four and twenty, they are able to fill up.

4 2dly. These pleasures, by repetition, lose their relish. It is a property of the machine, for which we know no remedy, that the organs, by which we perceive pleasure, are blunted and benumbed by being frequently exercised in the same way. There is hardly any one who has not found the difference between a gratification when new, and when familiar; or any pleasure which does not become indifferent as it grows habitual.

5 3dly. The eagerness for high and intense delights takes away the relish from all others; and as such delights fall rarely in our way, the greater part of our time becomes, from this cause, empty and uneasy.

6 There is hardly any delusion by which men are greater sufferers in their happiness, than by their expecting too much from what is called pleasure; that is, from those intense delights which vulgarly engross the name of pleasure. The very expectation spoils them. When they do come, we are often engaged in taking pains to persuade ourselves how much we are pleased, rather than enjoying any pleasure that springs naturally out of the object.

7 And whenever we depend upon being vastly delighted, we always go home secretly grieved at missing our aim. Likewise, as hath been observed just now, when this humor of being prodigiously delighted has once taken hold of the imagination, it hinders us from providing for, or acquiescing in, those gently soothing engagements, the due variety and succession of which are the only things that supply a continued stream of happiness.

8 What I have been able to observe of that part of mankind whose professed pursuit is pleasure, and who are withheld in the pursuit by no restraints of fortune, or scruples of conscience, corresponds sufficiently with this account. I have commonly remarked, in such men, a restless and inextinguishable passion for variety; a great part of their time to be vacant, and so much of it irksome; and that, with whatever eagerness and expectation they set out, they become, by degrees, fastidious in their choice of pleasure, languid in the enjoyment, yet miserable under the want of it.

9 The truth seems to be that there is a limit at which the pleasures soon arrive, and from which they ever afterwards decline. They are of necessity of short duration, as the organs cannot hold on their emotions beyond a certain length of time; and if you endeavor to compensate for the imperfection in their nature, by the frequency with which you repeat them, you lose more than you gain, by the fatigue of the faculties and the diminution of sensibility.

10 We have said nothing in this account of the loss of opportunities, or the decay of faculties, which, whenever they happen, leave the voluptuary destitute and desperate, teased by desires which can never be gratified, and the inemory of pleasures which must return no more.

11 It will also be allowed by those who have experienced it, and perhaps by those alone, that pleasure which is purchased by the incumbrance of our fortune is purchased too dear; the pleasure never compensating for the perpetual irritation of embarrassed circumstances.

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12 These pleasures, after all, have their value: and as the young are always too eager in their pursuit of them, the old are sometimes too remiss; that is, too studious of their ease to be at the pains for them, which they really deserve.

13 Secondly. Neither does happiness consist in an exemption from pain, labor, care, business, suspense, molestation, and "those evils which are without;" such a state being usually attended not with ease, but with depression of spirits, a tastelessness in all our ideas, imaginary anxieties, and the whole train of hypochondriacal affections.

14 For which reason, it seldom answers the expectations of those who retire from their shops and counting houses to enjoy the remainder of their days in leisure and tranquillity; much less of such as in a fit of chagrin shut themselves up in cloisters and hermitages, or quit the world and their stations in it, for solitude and repose.

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15 Thirdly. Neither does happiness consist in greatness, rank or elevated station. No superiority appears to be of any account but superiority over a rival. Philosophy smiles at the contempt with which the rich and great speak of the petty strifes and competitions of the poor, not reflecting that these strifes and competitions are just as reasonable as their own, and the pleasure, which success affords, the same.

16 Our position is, that happiness does not consist in greatness. And this position we make out by showing, that even what are supposed to be the peculiar advantages of greatness, the pleasures of ambition and superiority, are, in reality, common to all conditions.

17 All that can be said is, that there remains a presumption in favor of those conditions of life in which men generally appear most cheerful and contented. For though the apparent happiness of mankind be not always a true measure of their real happiness, it is the best measure we have.

18 Taking this for my guide, I am inclined to believe that happiness consists,

I. In the exercise of the social affections. Those persons commonly possess good spirits who have about them many objects of affection and endearment, as wife, children, kindred, friends. And to the want of these may be imputed the peevishness of monks, and of such as lead a monastic life.

19 Of the same nature with the indulgence of our domestic affections, and equally refreshing to the spirits, is the pleasure which results from acts of bounty and beneficence,

exercised either in giving money, or in imparting to those who want it, the assistance of our skill and profession. 20 Another main article of human happiness is,

II. The exercise of our faculties, either of body or mind, in the pursuit of some engaging end. It seems to be true, that no plenitude of present gratifications, can make the possessor happy for a continuance, unless he have something in reserve-something to hope for, and look forward to.

21 This I conclude to be the case from comparing the alacrity and spirits of men, who are engaged in any pursuit which interests them, with the dejection and ennui of almost all, who are either born to so much that they want nothing more, or who have used up their satisfactions too soon, and drained the sources of them. Hence those pleasures are most valuable, not which is most excellent in the fruition, but which are most productive of engagement and activity in the pursuit.

22 Engagement is every thing. The more significant, however, our engagements are, the better; such as the planning of laws, institutions, manufactures, charities, improvements, public works; and the endeavoring, by our interest, address, solicitations, and activity, to carry them into effect; or upon a smaller scale, the procuring of maintenance and fortune for our families, by a course of industry and application to our callings, which forms and gives motion to the common occupations of life;

23 Training up a child; prosecuting a scheme for his future establishment; making ourselves masters of a language or a science; improving or managing an estate; laboring after a piece of preferment; and lastly, any engagement, which is innocent, is better than none; as the writing of a book, the building of a house, the laying out of a garden, the digging of a fish-pond; even the raising of a cucumber or a tulip.

24 Whilst the mind is taken up with the objects of business before us, we are commonly happy, whatever the object or business be: when the mind is absent, and the thoughts are wandering to something else than what is passing in the place in which we are, we are often miserable.

25 III. Happiness depends upon the prudent constitution of the habits. The art in which the secret of human happiness in a great measure consists, is to set the habits in such a manner, that every change may be a change for the better. The habits themselves, are much the same; for whatever is made habitual, becomes smooth, and easy, and nearly indifferent.

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