can, have recourse also to yet purer fountains, the holy Scriptures
which alone give to sinful mortals any sure hopes of an happy immortality; that you may adorn your souls with every virtue, prepare yourselves for every honourable office in life, and quench that manly and laudable thirst you should have after knowledge. {
Let not philosophy rest in speculation}
let it be a medicine for the disorders of the soul, freeing the heart from anxious solicitudes and turbulent desires; and dispelling its fears: let your manners, your tempers, and conduct be such as {
right}
reason requires. Look not upon this part of philosophy as matter of ostentation, or shew of knowledge, but as the most sacred law of life and conduct, which none can despise with impunity, or without impiety toward God: and whose precepts whoever seriously endeavours to obey, as far as he is capable, shews the truest worth and excellence, and the highest wisdom; and is truly the most prosperous as to his greatest interests in life.4 <v> <vi>
Choose the best course of life, and custom will make it the most pleasant.
Pythagoras.
Assume to yourself to live like a perfect man, or one who has made great proficiency in philosophy, and let it be an inviolable law, to act the part that appears most virtuous.
Epictetus.
{Other animals are committed to the government of men, but} God has committed men to the government of their own natural conscience. This governor we never should disobey; for it is offensive to God, and makes us enemies to the conscience within us.
Epictet. Fragm.
Choose rather to correct your own passions, than to be corrected and punished on their account.
The same author.
In this one thing delight and rest yourself, in going on constantly from one social action to another with remembrance of the Deity.
Marcus Antonin.
In every design, or attempt whether great or small we ought to invoke God.
Plato.
Give joy to the immortal Gods and those that love you.
An unknown Poet in Antonin.
LIBRORUM ET CAPITUM ARGUMENTA.
[THE CONTENTS OF BOOKS AND CHAPTERS.]
In epistola ad Juvent. Philosophia moralis “ars vitae ad virtutem et beatitudinem assequendam instituendae.” Ejus partes Ethica, et Jurisprudentia naturalis. Hujus itidem tres partes. 1. Jurisprudentia privata. 2. Oeconomica. 3. Politica. [In a Letter to the youth, moral philosophy is the art of living to pursue virtue and happiness. Its parts are Ethics, and Natural jurisprudence. The parts of the last are three: 1. Private jurisprudence 2. Economics 3. Politics.] p. 3. Operis suscipiendi causa. [The reason for undertaking this work.] p. 4. Quo consilio scripti libri Ciceronis de officiis. [The design of Cicero’s De officiis.] p. 5. et cohortatio ad Philosophiam. [and an exhortation to philosophy.]
LIB. I. Ethica. [Ethics.]
Cap. I. De natura humana. [On human nature.]
1. Philosophia moralis ars architectonica aliis imperans. [Moral philosophy is a superior art commanding the others.] pag. 1. Ex hominis natura eruenda officiorum notitia. [The knowledge of our duties has to be dug up from human nature.] p. 2.
2. Constat homo ex animo et corpore. In quo sita corporis praestantia et infirmitas. [Man consists of soul and body. Excellences and weaknesses of the body.] p. 3, 4.
3. Animi partes sive facultates, intellectus et voluntas. Ad intellectum referuntur sensus: iique externi vel interni. [The parts or powers of the soul, understanding and will. The senses report to the understanding and they are external or internal.] 4, 5. Sensibus prima boni malique notitia paratur. [Senses provide the first acquaintance of good and evil.] ibid. Quaedam perceptiones mediae. [Perceptions of a middle kind.] ib. Aliae antecedentes et directae, nullâ alia praeeunte; aliae reflexae. [Some perceptions are antecedent and direct, others are reflexive.] 6.
4. Sensus interni quales. [Which are the internal senses.] ib. Sensu percipiuntur omnes ideae. [All the ideas are perceived by sense.] 7. Vis rationis. [The power of reason.] ib. Hae vires a Deo ad homines pervenerunt, Deique consilium ostendunt. [These powers are given to men by God and show his wisdom.] ib.
5. Bona sensu prius quam ratione percipiuntur. [Every sort of good is perceived by sense before reasoning.] 8. De voluntate. [On will.] ib. Sui in optimo statu conservandi studium cuique infixum, omniumque appetitio quae ad vitam faciunt beatam, et contrariorum fuga. [In every man is rooted the study to preserve himself in the best condition, the desire of all the things that make for a happy life, and the avoidance of the contraries.] 8, 9. Gaudia et moerores unde nascuntur. [The causes of joy and sorrow.] 9. Quatuor voluntatis motus. [Four motions of the will.] ib.
6. Motus perturbati sive passiones; a voluntate diversae. [The passions or turbulent motions; they are different from the calm motions of the will.] <ii> 10. Appetitus rationalis et sensitivus. [The appetite is rational or sensitive.] ib. Hic dividitur in concupiscibilem et irascibilem. [The last one is divided into concupiscible and irascible.] ib. Passionum quatuor genera; cujusque partes plurimae. [Four general classes of passions. Of each class there are many subdivisions.] 11.
7. Voluntatis motus vel gratuiti, vel ex philautia orti. [The motions of the will are disinterested or selfish.] ib. Utrumque genus vel purum, vel perturbatum. [Each kind is calm or turbulent.] ib. Eorum partes. [Their parts.] 12. Quae propter se expetenda. [What is desired for itself.] 13. Homini naturalis est benevolentia gratuita. [Disinterested benevolence is rooted in human nature.] ib.
8. Sensus reflexi, quibus cernuntur. Pulchritudo; Harmonia, rerum convenientia. [The reflexive senses, by which we perceive beauty, harmony, and the concord of things.] 14, 15. et laeta sit veri cognitio. [and the discovery of truth is joyful.] ib.
9. Sympathia, sive sensus communis. [Sympathy, or common sense.] 15.
10. Homo ad agendum natus. Recti et honesti sensus, explicatur. [Man was destined by nature for action. The sense of what is right and honourable is explained.] 16–23.
11. Comprobationis gradus varii; unde pietatis, et amicitiae sanctitas elucet. [The different degrees of approbation; whence the sanctity of piety and friendship shines forth.] 23–26.
12. Sensus hujus principatus, cui in
