There are many different principles of classification on which the enumeration of duties may proceed. It is perhaps not too much to say that all duties may be deduced, with a greater or less exercise of in genuity, as corollaries from any one which has been previously esta lished. Thus Wollaston, iu his ' Religion of Nature,' deduces all man's duties from the duty of truth. Hobbes again, in his De Cive; derives all morality from the duty of preserving peace. It is clear that the mode to be adopted of treating the subject, or, in other words, the mode of classifying our enumeration of duties, is a matter entirely of convenience ; and, merely as a matter of convenience, we shall adopt the division of duties which has been partly acted upon by Dr. Paley, and which is perhaps the division most generally resorted to by writers on morals.
We shall treat of a man's duties, first, as they regard himself indi vidually, and, secondly, as they regard others. It is necessary to remark, in order to prevent misapprehension, that one duty is a duty towards oneself, and another duty is a duty towards others, not on account of its tending respectively to produce happiness only to oneself or only to others, but simply from the accidental circumstance of oneself in the oue case and others in the other being, as it were, the outward object of the action or disposition which constitutes the duty. " These acts of ours," to quote from Mr. James Mill, " which are primarily useful to ourselves, are secondarily useful to others; and those which are primarily useful to others are secondarily useful to ourselves." (' Analysis of the Human Mind,' vol. ii., p. 234.) Much of the good resulting from the performance of what we call duties towards our selves consists in our being thereby better enabled to do good to others ; and together with the happiness conferred on others by the performance of our duties towards them, is the happiness caused to ourselves by the gratification of our feelings of sympathy and of duty, and the additional security that is gained for the good-will of others towards ourselves.
I. A man's duty to himself consists generally in the preservation of the life with which his Creator has endowed him, and in the improve ment, to the greatest degree in his power, of the faculties which he possesses.
The first part of this duty is altogether negative. A man must abstain from wantonly exposing himself to danger, or, in other words, he must be prudent, and he intuit refrain from suicide. For when man learns that God has adapted his created world to the production of general happiness, be learns at the same time that life has been given for that purpose ; and in foolishly risking or in laying violent hands upon his own life. he tends so far to mar God's object. He throws
away his own means of attaining happiness in the way in which God has willed that he should attain it, and he destroys also his means of promoting the happiness of others.
As regards the second part of a man's duty towards himself, con sisting in the improvement of his faculties, or, as we may otherwise express it, of his intellectual and moral being, this is partly positive and partly negative. It is a man's duty to improve himself, su far as ho can, by study and by cultivating good dispositions; the full explana tion of the best mode of doing which belongs properly to the subject of education. It is his duty also not to deteriorate his character by sensual excesses. The vices which he has thus to guard against are principally two, lost and intemperance ; the latter of which divides itself into drunkenness and gluttimy. The names of the two virtues opposite to the two vices of lust and intemperance are chastity and temperance. The cultivation of these two virtues, or the abstinence from the two corresponding vice', is recommended not only by the good accruing to the individual, but also by the extent to which he is thereby saved from inflicting injury on others.
II. In considering a man's duties towards others, we would adopt the subdivision of duties towards men generally as men, and duties towards men as members of the same society. These last duties will be again subdivided into duties towards members of the same political society or state, and duties towards members of the same family.
1. The duties towards men generally as men, or towards mankind, may be comprehended under the general names of benevolence or kind ness, courage, sincerity, and humility.
In benevolence or kindness are included sympathy, or a general dis position to assist our fellow-men ; pity, or kindness towards those in distress, and towards inferiors ; or liberality, which, being the disposition to make our own means serviceable to others, turns pity to good account ; gratitude ; and charity, in the sense in Which it is used by St. Paul, or the disposition to judge kindly of others' con duct. The vices opposed to sympathy, pity, generosity, gratitude, and charity, are selfishness, or cruelty, avarice, in ratitude, and malevolence or uncharitableness. Slander is one principal form in which the last-mentioned evil disposition displays itself. The cultiva tion of the virtues comprehended under the name benevolence, and the avoidance of the opposite vices, have an obvious and immediate bearing on the happiness of others. At the same time it is not to be forgotten that happiness accrues to the benevolent man himself from the grati fication of his natural feelings of sympathy, and that by doing good to others he disposes others to do good to him.