clufions of reason with the dictates of religion; and to fubjoin fuch inferences, remarks, and illuftrations as appear immediately applicable to the circumstances of Englishmen in common life. In the profecution of a plan of this nature, the attention will of course be attracted in the first place by those objects which are of the most general importance, and those fituations which render the perfons fixed in them particularly confpicuous. And it will afterwards be directed to points which interest either a smaller proportion of the community, or that part of it which is more withdrawn from public obfervation. I propose therefore, in the outfet of the undertaking, to investigate the conformity between the acknowledged principles of the British Conftitution, as it ftands and is administered at prefent, and those fundamental rules of political wisdom, which ought to be carefully regarded in every civil fociety to offer, in the next place, fome remarks on the functions of the Sovereign, and to notice the general duties of Englishmen as fubjects and fellow-citizens: and afterwards to difcriminate the upper and middle claffes of the inhabitants of this country according to the feveral

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veral ranks, profeffions, and employments into which they are diftributed, beginning with those of a public nature, and descending to those which are private and domeftic, and to ftate the feveral duties and temptations peculiar to each. It will probably not be expected that in a work of this kind a diftinct part fhould be fpecifically addreffed to thofe, who are placed in the lowest ranks of fociety. By them argumentative and bulky treatises on morality will not be read. The careful perufal of their bible, and the study of short and familiar expofitions of its precepts, aided by the public and private admonitions of their pastors, are to them the principal fources of inftruction. Not but that the morals of the common people may be materially corrected, their understandings improved, and their misconceptions rectified, with equal benefit to themselves and to the whole community, by judicious attention on the part of their fuperiors among the laity. To pursue those objects with diligence, with perfeverance, and with a ftudious regard to the difference of temporary or local circumstances, practices, and opinions, is a moral obligation ftrictly incumbent on all perfons in the higher claffes; and one which

will not pafs without further notice in the courfe of the following pages.

To the choice of this plan I was determined by a perfuafion, that it offered the fairest opportunity of effectually bringing home the duties of men to their understandings and bofoms. He who would read with indifference an abftract enquiry into the nature of a particular duty, and the proper means of performing it, might be ftruck with a faithful representation of the occafions on which the performance of that duty is required, the manner in which it is to be effected, and the pretences by which it is commonly evaded, exemplified in the occurrences which attend his own profeffion and fituation in life. Remarks, which in the former cafe he might probably have flighted as the reveries of fpeculative theory, in the latter prefs upon his mind corroborated by the energy of authentic facts, of the truth of which he has had ocular and almost hourly demonftration. I may likewife add as a further reason for adopting the method propofed, that I do not recollect ethical work in which a fimilar plan is pursued with regularity, and at the fame

any

time extended to any confiderable variety of fubjects.

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There is however one imperfection infeparable from this mode of proceeding, which it may be requifite briefly to mention. No man acts in a fingle character; nor can all his duties be brought into one point of view. The member of the legislature, the minifter of ftate, the counsellor, the merchant, is also a subject, a husband, a parent, a landlord, or a master. In order then to avoid the repetition of the same obfervations under many different heads; a repetition which would only fwell the bulk of the performance without conveying additional information; I request the reader, of whatever defcription he may be, not to confine his attention to the chapter appropriated to the ftation or profeffion to which he belongs; but to confider thofe chapters (6) alfo which include the general duties of fubjects, and the especial obligations of private and domeftic life, as particularly addreffed to himself. If I fhould be told that remarks and directions will ftill be

(b) Chap. iv. and xiv.

found

found applied to perfons of one defcription which equally appertain to those of another; instead of sheltering myself under the acknowledged impoffibility of avoiding all defects in any undertaking, or pleading that the defect alleged is of no prominent magnitude, I might reply that it is a circumftance which I fcarcely defire to be otherwife. For, as the matter now stands, even the curfory enquirer, who turns to a particular chapter from curiofity to know what is there stated concerning the profeffion of which it treats, though a profeffion in which he is not perfonally engaged; may chance to meet with observations, which he may perceive to be not altogether inapplicable to his own,

It remains only to add, that I have ftudied throughout the fubfequent chapters to avoid general cenfures, and indifcriminate imputations, as altogether repugnant to candour and juftice; and that in fpeaking of the errors and faults of any particular profeffion, I mean fimply to note them as errors and faults to which perfons in that profeffion are confiderably liable, without in any degree defigning to intimate

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