CHAPTER II. 



SECOND PRINCIPLE OF MORAL ACTION LOVE TO ALL SUBORDINATE INTELLIGENCES. 



IN the commencement of the last chapter, I 

 had occasion to remark that, strictly speaking, 

 the fundamental principle or affection which 

 gives birth to all the ramifications of moral 

 action, is but one, namely, Love. This noble 

 affection may be considered as dividing itself 

 into two great streams, one directing its course 

 towards the Creator, as the supreme source of 

 all felicity, and the other expanding itself to 

 wards all the intellectual beings which he has 

 formed. 



Having, in the preceding pages, endeavoured 

 to illustrate the foundation and the reasonable 

 ness of the principle of love to God, from a con 

 sideration of his perfections, character, and re 

 lations, and having described some of those 

 kindred affections by which its existence in the 

 minds of moral agents is manifested, I shall 

 now endeavour to exhibit the foundation, and 

 the reasonableness, of that modification of love 

 which is directed towards created intelligences, 

 and which may be termed the second principle of 

 moral action THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGH 

 BOUR AS THYSELF. Taking it for granted that 

 this is the fundamental law prescribed by the 

 Creator for regulating the conduct of intelligent 

 beings towards each other because the Supreme 

 Lawgiver has proclaimed it as such in the reve 

 lation which he has given us of his will I shall 

 endeavour to exhibit the reasonableness and the 

 beauty of this amiable principle from the na 

 ture of man, and the relations in which all the 

 individuals of the human race stand to each 

 other from the happiness which would flow 

 from the uniform operation of this principle and 

 from the misery which would inevitably ensue 

 were it completely eradicated from the minds of 

 moral agents. 



Before proceeding to the illustration of these 

 particulars, it may be proper to remark, that by 

 &quot; our neighbour 1 is to be understood men of every 

 nation and of evert/ clime, whether they avow 

 liemselues as our friends or our enemies, and 

 whatever may be their language, their religion, 

 their rank, or station. The inhabitants of New 

 Zealand, of Patagonia, of New Holland, of 

 UieLadrones, of Kamtschatka, or of Greenland, 

 are our neighbours, in the sense intended in the 

 divine injunction above quoted, as well as those 

 who reside in our own nation and in our more 

 immediate neighbourhood. For with all these, 

 and other tribes of mankind, we may happen to 



have intercourses, either directly or indirectly, 

 and towards them all we ought to exercise an 

 affection analogous to that which every man 

 exercises towards himself. This we are deci 

 sively taught by our Saviour in the parable oi 

 the good Samaritan, in which it is clearly shown, 

 that under the designation of neighbour, we are 

 to include even our bitterest enemies. His apos 

 tles avowed the same sentiment, and taught, 

 that in the bonds of Christian love, no distinc 

 tion should exist between &quot; Jews and Greeks, 

 Barbarians, Scythians, bond, or free.&quot; For 

 they are all members of the great family of God, 

 and recognized as children by the universal 

 parent. 



SECTION I. 



THE NATURAL EQUALITY OP MANKIND CON 

 SIDERED AS THE BASIS OF LOVE TO OUR 

 NEIGHBOUR. 



I SHALL now exhibit a few considerations 

 founded on the Natural Equality of Mankind, in 

 order to evince the reasonableness and the ne 

 cessity of the operation of the principle of love 

 towards all our fellow-men. 



In the first place, Men, of whatever rank, kin 

 dred, or tribe, are the offspring of the great 

 Parent of the universe. They were all created 

 by the same Almighty Being, and to him they 

 are indebted for all the members and functions ot 

 their animal frames, and for those powers, ca 

 pacities, and endowments, which render them 

 superior to the clods of the valley and to the 

 beasts of the forest. They derived their origin 

 too, as to their bodies, from the same physical prin 

 ciples and from the same earthly parent. &quot; Of the 

 dust of the ground&quot; the body of the first man was 

 formed ; and from Adam, the primogenitor of the 

 human race, have descended all the generations 

 of men which now exist, or will hereafter exisi 

 till the close of time. This is equally true of the 

 prince and of his subjects ; of the monarch ar 

 rayed in purple, and seated on a throne, and ol 

 the beggar, who is clothed in rags, and embraces 

 a dunghill; of the proud nobleman, who boasts 

 of a long line of illustrious ancestors, and of the 

 obscure peasant, whose progenitors were uniio- 

 r ;ced and unknown. All derived their origin from 



