Chap. VI. A N T 1 E N T METAPHYSICS. 119 



With refped to ourfelves, a virtuous adion mufl be fuitable to the 

 dignity of our nature, to our charadler, and to our rank and ftation 

 in life : With all thefe, it muft be of a piece, and have nothing re- 

 pugnant or difcordant to any of them. 



ido. With refpe£t to others, it muft be fuitable to our particular 

 relations or connections with them, to the fociety or community of 

 which we are members, and to a greater community ftill, — our kind, 

 with which Nature has connedled us as well as every other Animal. 

 And here the Syftem of Virtue will take in the moft extenfive Bene- 

 volence. 



And, lallly^ with refped: to God and Nature, it muft be correfpon- 

 dent with the fyftem of the Whole of Things, that great City or 

 Community, to fpeak in the language of the Stoics, comprehending 

 Gods and Men, and of which every individual Man is a part. This 

 is the Grand Syftem, the moft beautiful, as well as the greateft of 

 all Syftcms ; a refpedt to which makes the virtuous actions what the 

 Stoics call a xarofSw/**, or a perfed right aclion : Whereas, Virtues 

 that refpe<it only lefler Syftems, are no more, in their language, 

 than x«9»ixovT«, or ojices *. This is the Virtue of their Sage, whom 



they 



• See Cicero in the beginning of his book of Offices — The Stoic Syftem of Morals wai 

 eertainly moft comprehenfive, taking in all Nature, and the unlverfuy of things. Hence 



it is, that their moral writings fpeak fo much of the Univerfe, — the Univerfal Nature 



the Firft Caufe, — the Series and Chain of Caufes, — Matter and Form,— the Succeflive 

 Changes and Periods of Exiftence, which this our Earth, and every other thing in Na- 

 ture, has gone through and will go through. He that does not know that there is a 

 World, does not know where he is, fays.Antoninus, lib. 8. parag. 52. ofMeditat. He 

 muft comprehend in his Mind the whole world, and not only the Age in which he lives 

 but the fucccffion of Times and Periods, and the Changes and VicilGtudcs of all thines- 

 lib- 9. p 32. And it is every where inculcated in this, and other Stoical Works, thic 

 man ftiould confider himfelf as a part of this great Whole, fubjeifl to the laws of it, and 

 taken into the fyftem whether he will or no : So that the foundation of all duty, accord- 

 ing to them, is a chearful compliance and refignation to this Univerfal Nature and 

 predetermined Order of Things ; and the end of man is to comply with the laws of this 



Great 



