man, because endowed with reason, by which he discerns consequences, looks into the causes of things and their progress, and being acquainted, as it were, with precedents, he compares their analogies, and adapts and connects the present with what is to come. It is easy for him to foresee the future direction of all his life, and therefore he prepares what is necessary for passing through it.

Nature, likewise, by the same force of reason, conciliates man to man, in order to a community both of language and of life above all, it implants in them a strong love for their offspring; it impels them to desire that companies and societies should be formed, and that they should mingle in them; and that for those reasons, man should take care to provide for the supply of clothing and of food; and that not only for himself, but for his wife, his children, and for all whom he ought to hold dear and to protect. This is an affection which arouses the spirit and makes it more strenuous for action.

The distinguishing property of man is to search for and to follow after truth. Therefore, when relaxed from our necessary cares and concerns, we then covet to see, to hear, and to learn somewhat; and we esteem knowledge of things either obscure or wonderful to be the indispensable means of living happily.' From this we understand that truth, simplicity, and candor, are most agreeable to the nature of mankind. To this passion for discovering truth, is added a desire to direct; for a mind, well formed by nature, is unwilling to obey any man but him who lays down rules and instructions to it, or who, for the general advantage, exercises equitable and lawful government. From this

1 "Nature has made it delightful to man to know, disquieting to him to know only imperfectly, while any thing remains in his power that can make his knowledge more accurate or comprehensive; and she has done more than all this: she has not waited till we reflect on the pleasure which we are to enjoy, or the pain which we are to suffer. It is sufficient that there is something unknown which has a relation to something that is known to us. We feel instantly the desire of knowing this too. We have a desire of knowledge which nothing can abate; a desire that in some greater or less degree extends itself to every thing which we are capable of knowing, and not to realities merely but to all the extravagances of fiction."-Dr. Thomas Brown's "Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind."

proceeds loftiness of mind, and contempt for worldly interests.1

Neither is it a mean privilege of nature and reason, that man is the only animal who is sensible of order, of decency, and of propriety, both in acting and speaking. In like manner, no other creature perceives the beauty, the gracefulness, and the harmony of parts, in those objects which are discerned by the sight. And analogous perception to which nature and reason convey from the sight to the mind; and consider that beauty, regularity, and order in counsels and actions should be still more preserved. She is cautious not to do aught that is indecent or effeminate, or to act or think wantonly in any of our deliberations or deeds. The effect and result of all this produces that honestum which we are now in search of; that virtue which is honorable even without being ennobled; and of which we may truly say, that even were it praised by none it would be commendable in itself.

V. My Son Marcus, you here perceive at least a sketch, and, as it were, the outline of virtue; which, could we perceive her with our eyes, would, as Plato says, kindle a wonderful love of wisdom. But whatever is virtuous arises from some one of those four divisions: for it consists either in sagacity and the perception of truth; or in the preservation of human society, by giving to every man his due, and by observing the faith of contracts; or in the greatness and firmness of an elevated and unsubdued mind; or in observing order and regularity in all our words and in all our actions, in which consists moderation and temperance.

1 The same sentiment, with reference to the love of knowledge, is more beautifully expressed by Virgil:

"Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas ;
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum

Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari."

Georg. II. lines 490-492.

2 Our bodily eyes.] "This is a fine and a celebrated sentiment of Plato. Οψις (says he, in his Phedro), ἡμῖν ὀξυτάτη τῶν διὰ τοῦ σώματος ἔρχεται αἰσθήσεων, ἡ φρόνη εἰς οὐκ ὁρᾶται, δεινοὺς γὰρ ἂν παρεῖχειν ἔρωτας, εἰ τοιοῦτον ἐαυτηρ ἐναργές εἴδωλον παρείχετο εἰς ὄψις τόν : ' Our eyesight (says he), is the most exquisite of our senses, yet it does not serve us to discern wisdom; if it did, what a glow of love would she kindle within us.' The reader may, perhaps, observe with what propriety Cicero applies to virtue what Plato says of wisdom."-Guthrie.

Though these four divisions are connected and interwoven with one another, yet certain kinds of duties arise from each of them. As, for instance, in that part which I first described, and under which I comprehended sagacity or wisdom, consists the search after and discovery of truth; and this is the characteristic function of that virtue: for the man who is most sagacious in discovering the real truth in any subject, and who can, with the greatest perspicacity and quickness, both see and explain the grounds of it, is justly esteemed a man of the greatest understanding and discernment. From hence it follows that truth is, as it were, the subject-matter which this faculty handles, and on which it employs itself. As to the other three virtues, they necessarily consist in acquiring and preserving those things with which the conduct of life is connected, in order to preserve the community and relations of mankind, and to display that excellence and greatness of soul which exhibits itself as well in acquiring resources and advantages both for ourselves and for our friends, as, still more concpicuously, in properly disregarding them. As to order, resolution, moderation, and the like, they come into that rank of virtues which require not only an operation of the mind, but a certain degree of personal activity; for it is in observing order and moderation in those things which constitute the objects of active life, that we shall preserve virtue and de

cency.

VI. Now, of the four divisions under which I have ranged the nature and essence of virtue, that which consists in the knowledge of truth principally affects the nature of man. For all of us are impelled and carried along to the love of knowledge and learning, in which we account it glorious to excel, but consider every slip, mistake, ignorance, and deception in it, to be hurtful and shameful. In this pursuit, which is both natural and virtuous, two faults are to be avoided. The first is, the regarding things which we do not know as if they were understood by us, and thence rashly giving them our assent.1 And he that wishes, as every man ought to wish, to avoid this error, must devote both his time and his industry to the study of things. The other fault is, that some people bestow too much study and pains

1 "The highest perfection of human reason is to know that there is an infinity of truth beyond its reach."-Pascal.

upon things that are obscure,' difficult, and even immaterial in themselves. When those faults are avoided, all the pains and care a man bestows upon studies that are virtuous in themselves, and worthy of his knowledge, will be deservedly commended. Thus we have heard how Caius Sulpicius2 excelled in astronomy, and Sextus Pompeius, to my own knowledge, in mathematics; many also in logic, and more in the civil law, all which are arts that serve to investigate truth, in the pursuit of which our duty forbids us to be diverted from transacting our business, because the whole glory of virtue consists in activity. Yet this is often intermitted, and frequent are our returns to our studies. Then there is an incessant working of the mind, which, without our taking pains, is sufficient to keep us in the practice of thinking. Now, all our thoughts, and every motion of the mind, should be devoted either to the forming of plans for virtuous actions, and such as belong to a good and happy life, or else to the pursuits of science and knowledge. I have now treated of at least the first source of

duty.

VII. Now, as to the other three, the most extensive system is that by which the mutual society of mankind, and, as it were, the intercourse of life, is preserved. Of this there are two parts: justice, in which virtue displays itself with the most distinguished luster, and from which men are termed good; and allied to this, beneficence, which may likewise be termed benevolence, or liberality. Now, the chief province of justice is, that no person injure another, unless he is pro

1 "The emperor Antoninus very finely thanks the gods, that when he applied to the study of philosophy he was taught by Junius Rusticus to avoid this error. Τὸν εἰς ἑαυτὸν ὅπως ἑτιθύμησα φιλοσοφίας, μὴ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τινα σοφιστὴν μηδὲ ἀποκαθίσαι ἐπὶ τοὺς συγγραφεῖς ἢ συλλογίσμους ἀναλύειν, ἢ περὶ τὰ μετεωρολογικὰ καταγίνεσθαι: “That when I applied my mind to the study of philosophy, I did not meet with a sophist for my instructor; neither did I spend my time in reading mean authors, nor was I embarrassed by the uselees studies of astrology." -Guthrie.

2 "We have, in the Roman history, a remarkable story of this nobleman, by which we may see the excellent effects of learning in a man of consideration, who knows how to time it well. For we are told, that while he served against the Macedonians, under Julius Æmilius, he foretold to the Roman soldiers an eclipse, and explained its causes, and thereby prevented the consternation they otherwise would have fallen into, and which, seizing the enemies, they were easily routed by the Romans."-Guthrie.

voked' by suffering wrong; next, that public property be appropriated to public, and private to individual, use.

Now, by nature no property is private, but dependent either on ancient possession (as when men formerly came into unoccupied territories); or victory (as when they have taken possession of it in war); or public constitution, contract, terms, or lot. By those, the land of Arpinum is regarded as belonging to the Arpinates; the Tusculan, to the Tusculans. The like division holds with regard to matters of private property. Thus, as every man holds his own, each should possess that portion which fell to his share of those things that by nature were common; and it follows, that no man can covet another's property without violating the laws of human society.2

But (as has been strikingly said by Plato) we are not born for ourselves alone, and our country claims her share, and our friends their share of us; and, as the Stoics hold,

1 "Dictat autem ratio homini (says Grotius, de Jure Belli ac Pacis, lib. 2, cap. 20, § 5), nihil agendum quod noceatur homini alteri, nisi, id bonum habeat aliquid propositum. In solo autem inimici dolore, ita nude spectato, nullum est bonum nisi falsum et imaginarium: Now, reason tells men that we should do no hurt to another man, unless it is to serve some good end, for, from the mere pain of another person, there can result no good but what is mistaken and imaginary."-Vid plura in loc. cit.

2 This subject has been extensively investigated by modern moralists and jurists. Paley, in one of his chapters on property, adduces and comments upon the principal theories that have been advanced. Those of Mr. Locke, and of Paley himrelf, may be briefly given in the words of the latter. "Each man's limbs and labor are his own exclusively; by occupying a piece of ground a man inseparably mixes his labor with it, by which means the piece of ground becomes thenceforward his own, as you can not take it from him without depriving him at the same time of something which is indisputably his." This is Mr. Locke's solution. Dr. Paley adds: "The real foundation of our right (i. e., to private property) is THE LAW OF THE LAND. It is the intention of God that the produce of the earth be applied to the use of man; this intention can not be fulfilled without establishing property; it is consistent, therefore, with his will that property be established. The land can not be divided into separate property without leaving it to the law of the country to regulate that division; it is consistent, therefore, with the same will, that the law should regulate the division; and, consequently, 'consistent with the will of God,' or 'right.' that I should possess that share which these regulations assign me. By whatever circuitous train of reasoning you attempt to derive this right, it must terminate at last in the will of God; the straightest, therefore, and shortest way of arriving at this will, is the best.-Paley's "Moral and Political Philosophy," book 3, chap. 4.