CHAP. U.\ CIVIL AND SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS. 281 



first, it is then they become dangerous, and not otherwise : 

 hence we are beholden to Machiavel, and writers of that 

 kind, who openly and unmasked declare what men do in 

 fact, and not what they ought to do;" for it is impossible to 

 join the wisdom of the serpent and the innocence of the 

 dove, without a previous knowledge of the nature of evil; as 

 without this, virtue lies exposed and unguarded. And far- 

 ther, a good and just man cannot correct and amend tlie 

 vicious and the wicked, unless he has first searched into all 

 the depths and dungeons of wickedness; for men of a cor- 

 rupt and depraved judgment ever suppose that honesty pro- 

 ceeds from ignorance, or a certain simplicity of manners, and 

 is rooted only in a belief of our tutors, instructors, books, 

 moral precei)ts, and vulgar discourse , whence, — unless they 

 plainly perceive that their perverse opinions, their corrupt 

 and distorted principles, are thoroughly known to those who 

 exhort and admonish them as well as to themselves, — they 

 despise all wholesome advice; according to that admirable 

 saying of Solomon, " A fool receives not the words of the 

 wise, unless thou speakest the very things that are in his 

 heart."*' And this part of morality, concerning cautions and 

 respective vice, we set down as wanting, under the name of 

 sober satire, or the insides of things. 



To the doctrine of respective duties belong also the 

 mutual duties between husband and -wife, parent and child, 

 master and servant, as also the laws of friendship, gratitude, 

 and the civil obligations of fraternities, colleges, neighbour- 

 hoods, and the like, always understanding that these things 

 are to be treated, not as parts of civil society, in which view 

 they belong to politics, but so far as the minds of particulars 

 ought to be instructed and disposed to preserve these bonds 

 of society. 



The doctrine of the good of communion, as well as of self- 

 good, treats good not only simply, but comparatively, and 

 thus regards the balancing of duty betwixt man and man, 

 case and case, private and public, present and future, &c., — 



■ Perhaps the treatise of Hieron. Cardan "De Arcanis Prudentiae 

 Civilis," is a capital periormance in this way ; as exposing numerous 

 tricks, frauds, and sbi-atagems of government, so as to prevent tfc« 

 honest-minded from being imposed upon by them. ShaWf 



• Prov, jtviii- 2. 



