PHILOSOPHY, MORAL. 
the whole, &c. ; yet he must never in any 
way evade, strain, or do violence to the 
laws, in order to obtain what he may think 
his own according to equity : and whenever 
he has offended, or is judged by lawful au- 
thority to have offended, he must submit to 
the punishment, whatever it be. 
93. Other rules, beside the ten foregoing, 
might be assigned, and these might be ex- 
pressed in a different way. “ I have put 
down,” says Hartley, ‘t .those which appear 
to be in fact the chief principles of social 
conduct to wise and good men. They must 
all be supposed to influence and interpret 
each other. Let a man only divest himself 
as much as possible of all selfish regards, 
and he will generally find some point, and 
that without much difficulty, or perplexity, 
in which all these rules unite to produce 
the greatest good upon the wliole, to all 
persons concerned. 
94. Though our plan and limits will not 
allow of our entering at length into the 
duties arising from the particular rela- 
tions of social life, yet we deem the obser- 
vations of Hartley on the subject of the 
parental relation so important, that we shall 
make an abstract of his leading statement. 
The principal duty of the parental relation 
is, the giving of a right eduSation, or the 
imprinting such associations on the minds of 
children, as may conduct them safe through 
this world, to a happy futurity. In the 
latter respect there can be no doubt, be- 
cause religion must on all hands be allowed 
to be the one necessary thing ; and, in the 
com§e of these investigations respecting the 
primary pursuit of life, it appears that it 
contributes as certainly to give ns the maxi- 
mum of happiness in this world, at least the 
fairest prospect of it, as to secure it in the 
next : so thqt a parent ought to inculcate 
it in every point of view. The chief errors 
of education are owing to the want of a 
practical persuasion of this point ; or, to a 
false tenderness or opinion on the part of a 
parent, by which he is led to believe that 
the object does not require, in the case of 
his child, frequent corrections and restraints, 
with perpetual encouragements and incen- 
tives to virtue bj^ reward, example, advice, 
books, conversation, &c. When due tare 
is taken from the first, little severity would 
ordinarily bo necessary; but in proportion 
as this care is neglected in the first years, a 
much greater degree of care, with high de- 
grees of severity, both bodily and mental, 
become absolutely necessary to preserve 
from misery both here and hereafter. Af- 
fectionate parents should, therefore, laboug 
from the earliest dawnings of understanding 
and desire, to check the growing obstinacy 
of the will ; to curb all sallies of passion ; 
to impress the deepest^ most amiable, reve- 
rential, and awful impressions of God, a 
future state, and all sacred things to re- 
strain anger, jgaloiisy, and selfishness ; to 
encourage love, compassion, generosity, for- 
giveness, gratitude ; to excite, and eveq 
oblige, to sucli industry as the tender age 
will properly admit. For one principal end 
and difficulty of life is to generate such mo- 
derate, varying, and perpetually actuating 
motives,^ by lueans of the natural sensible 
desires being associated vvith, apd appor- 
tioned to, foreign objects, as may keep up 
a state of moderate cheerfulness, and use- 
ful employment, during the whole course 
of our lives : whereas sensual, blind, and 
uninformed desire, presses violently for imj 
mediate gratification, is injurious to others, 
and destroys its own aims, or, at the best, 
gives way only to spleen and dissatisfac- 
tion. 
VI. ESTIMATE OF THE PLEASURES 0^ 
THEOPATHV. 
(Philosophy, raenfat, $89 — 91). 
95. We proceed now to the important 
inquiry respecting the theopathetic affec- 
tions, what regard they claim from us in our 
formation of the rule of life. Aud here it 
appears that the love of God should be our 
primary pursuit and ultimate end, because 
it regulates, improves, and perfects all the 
other parts of our nature, and afibrSs a plear 
sure superior in kind and in degree to all the 
rest.— -We have already seen the influence 
of the precepts pf piety on the four inferior 
classes of human pleasures, those of sensa- 
tion, imagination, ambition, and self interest ; 
but the precepts of piety are those which 
teach us what homage of bur .affections and 
external actions ought to be addressed to 
the Deity in a direct and immediate man- 
ner. Now all the affections enjoined by 
those precepts, terminate ultimately in the 
love of God, which therefpre ma^ be used 
in tlie. same situations in which the term pre- 
cepts of piety has been employed. — But in 
addition to this, it is obvious in a shorter 
way. The perpetual exertions of a pleasing 
affection tovvards a being who is infinite in 
power, knowledge, and goodness, and who is 
also our friend and father, cannot but en- 
hance all our joys, and alleviate all our sor- 
rows; a sense of his presence and protec- 
