Philanthropic Economy" shall consist of the practical applications of the standard of right and wrong thus obtained, to the abuses of existing institutions, and the remedies which those abuses demand.

EXPLANATION OF TERMS.

When it is intended to distinguish God's written will, from God's manifested will, the expressions, "Natural Revelation," and Scriptural Revelation" are used in preference to Natural Religion, and Revealed Religion; because the latter phraseology, though usual, falsely infers, that what God has been pleased to show us, is not so much a revelation, as what God has been pleased to tell us. The expression, "Natural Social System," is used to imply all those laws of God, determining our nature, mutual relations, natural circumstances, and natural capabilities, which we commonly call the laws of nature, and which the Creator has not been pleased to give free-will, whether individual or collective, any power of modifying.

The expression, Artificial Social System," is used to imply all those arrangements, such as the

laws, customs, and actions of men, with the use or neglect of the natural powers, and of the light of reason and revelation, which God has been pleased to leave to the option of free-will, either individual or collective.

PRELIMINARY VIEW

OF THE

PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS.

CHAPTER I.

Benevolence, Wisdom, and Power, willing, planning, and executing the extension of Felicity by means of Moral Order, traced as visibly Omnipresent in all the phenomena of mind and matter -the being, attributes, and will of God thence inferred.The abuse of free-will shown to be the only break in this harmony of nature.-The duty and interest of man thus made manifest.

These views, confirmed by the coincidence of God's will, visibly revealed in his works, with his will scripturally revealed in his word.

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,

Almighty! Thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair; Thyself how wondrous then !—

STATEMENT OF THEORY.

WE see all nature governed by laws, all those laws tending to one end,—that one end the extension of felicity. Hence we infer a first cause, powerful, intelligent, and benevolent. Powerful,

B

because we see all nature obeying these laws. Intelligent, because all these laws act in concert, tending to one end. Benevolent, because that one end is good or happiness.

Having traced benevolence willing the extension of felicity, as the great first cause, or originating principle of all things, and thus recognized the Almighty purpose of creation to be the extension of felicity, we dwell especially on the nature and natural circumstances of man; and we perceive them to be so arranged, that moral order is the only means by which comfort or happiness in this life, and the perfecting of those sympathies and powers necessary to render the soul of man susceptible of felicity in a future state, can be attained. We see also freedom of will to be involved in the extension of felicity, and yet to involve the possibility of moral evil; but that to incline and all but compel free-will to choose moral order and consequent happiness, God has not only given man reason, or the power of judging between good and evil, but also arranged all things within, as well as around man, (except still abuses of free-will) to point uniformly to the production, by natural causes of the moral order thus necessary to happiness; insomuch, that to depart from this moral order, man must so abuse free-will as to contend with every sympathy which can be traced to a natural origin, distort his artificial circumstances, so as to make them (in the formation of his sympathies) balance against, instead of