MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



THE science of manners and of duty ; the art 

 of being virtuous and happy. 



Moral Probation. 



This life is not a state of unmixed happiness sim- 

 ply ; it is not a state of designed misery ; it is not a 

 state of retribution ; it is not a state of punishment : 

 it is a state of moral probation. 



Of Evils, the least. 



Setting aside all idle theories of visionary perfec- 

 tion, the fatal condition upon which human society 

 exists, ever has been, universally is, and ever will be, 

 is the choice of the smaller evil. So little adapted is 

 our frail and mixed nature to the pure good, that 

 when theorists have attempted to reduce it to prac- 

 tice, the fruit has been more positive evil than would 

 have accrued from any other engine whatever. Thus 

 in a savage, or even merely barbarous state, slavery 

 is laudable, as it saves the captive from the axe and 

 the faggot, and transforms the idle marauder into an 

 industrious servant and useful member of another 

 community. 



Negative Happiness. 



He that suffers the least evil is the most happy, 

 a position descriptive of our negative state of happi- 

 ness in this world, which must be measured by the 

 least quantity of evil, to determine the preference. 

 We are all children of habit, and man is doomed by 



