related to him in his family-relations, it was denominated Economics: but extending to the larger confederation of general society, it received the name of Politics. To the' latter of these, Plato principally directed his attention, although he wrote upon the whole. These distinctions have been less respected in modern disquisitions; and Ethics have been properly understood to comprehend morals in all their branches, emanating from the individual, diffusing themselves through his immediate connexions, and spreading over all the face of society. Nor does it appear possible to separate morals in their principle, from an operation as extensive as the relations of life, and the influence of the individual-his duties being commensurate with his capacities.

In tracing the History of Morals, which is the subject of the present lecture, the mind naturally reposes upon Socrates, as the first philosopher who reduced morals to system, uncovered their source, and applied them practically to the duties of the individual, and his relations to others. The philosophy which preceded this illustrious man, related to nature, and might be called speculative; but he directed knowledge to purposes of moral utility-renounced such sciences as appeared to him to conduce little or nothing to this great design-gathered the scattered precepts of a remote antiquity-reduced them to order-established their truth, or refuted their sophistry-inferred from them practical results; and, to use the language of Cicero, was the first who led the studies of mankind to the important inquiries after virtue and vice, and to the establishment of the distinctions and the boundaries of good and evil.* As this unrivalled philosopher wrote nothing, we must be satisfied to learn the outline of his Ethics from Plato, by whom they were adopted and recorded. Morals themselves are as old as man's existence, and have been objects of inquiry and of speculation in all ages; but the reduction of them to form, (if we except the sacred writings, the oldest of all, and from which there are strong reasons to conclude, they were all borrowed,) must be referred to Socrates among the Grecians. He becomes, therefore, a central point-equally removed from the scattered elements to be found among his predecessors, who borrowed them from the eastern world, and the modern writers on this interesting subject, who seem substantially to have adopted his principles, with the advantages fur* Cic. Acad. Quest. i.

nished by the increasing experience' of ages, and the more powerful assistance, not always acknowledged, sometimes peremptorily denied, but not the less real and influential, of the sublime code of Christianity. I take my stand upon the simple and beautiful system of Socrates--as upon an elevation from which I may myself see, and be able to point out to you, in every direction, the moral landscape stretched all around it-losing itself, on the one hand, among the shadows of the remotest antiquity, and extending, on the other, to the age in which we live, to the country in which it is our privilege to dwell, and to the very lecture-room in which we are now assembled.

Pythagoras stands nearest Socrates, as his precursor in this study; and claims the highest attention and respect, whether we consider the extent of his scientific researches, or the accuracy of his judgment, or the value of his precepts, or the zeal which prompted him to explore the most distant lands, and to bring home the wisdom collected with such toil, from the most celebrated and the most copious sources. He gave his testimony also to the superiority of this science over all other researches; and deemed that philosophy which could not cure, at least some of the human passions, as worthless as that medicine which has no effect upon bodily disease.* He touched upon all the branches of morals virtually, although not methodically; and his mode of recommending moral duties, as well as of defining them, was by figures-by a symbolical and emblematical method of instruction. To the individual who refused his advice, and abandoned his school for sensual indulgences, he appealed by addressing the senses; and placing an empty coffin in the seat which he had been accustomed to occupy, as the emblem of that state of moral death to which he considered the mind of the unhappy profligate to be reduced.

He was accustomed to represent the friendship, and union, and harmony, which should prevail among his scholars, by setting salt before them. He expressed moral precepts in the same parabolic manner. Sloth, he reproved by the admonition, "Receive not a swallow into your house." The swallow sports but for a season, soon disappears, and is supposed to be torpid during the greater part of the year. He guarded them against provoking the irritable and the powerful, by advising, "Stir not the fire with a sword." He cautioned against corroding and useless cares, by exhorting, "Eat not the heart." He recommended a strict

Stobæus Serm. 80.

regard to justice, by the command, "Pass not over the balance." The "concord of sweet sounds," the harmonies of music, were with him favourite images of moral excellencies. These symbols might be multiplied, if it were necessary to our present purpose; but such as have been adduced are sufficient to establish and illustrate the emblematical and parabolic mode of instruction relative to morals employed by Pythagoras.*

Nor did Pythagoras stand alone in this appeal to the understanding through the medium of the senses. Plato calls virtue, the harmony (appoviav,) and music of the soul. (p) Temperance, he describes as a certain symphony and concord of the affections. (συμφωνια τινι, και αρμονια.) Plato himself demands of those who read his allegories, that they should not rest satisfied with the image, but penetrate the hidden meaning of the truth so veiled. And it was therefore justly observed, that "He is no Platonist who thinks that Plato must not be understood allegorically, unless he will, with Aristotle, triumph over Plato's words, and not regard his profound sense." The philosophy of Socrates was plain and simple, and proceeded upon a method peculiar to himself, of asking questions, until he obtained the induction which he desired, from the concessions of his opponents. That of Plato was more dogmatical, more ornamented, and often allegorical. His symbols, indeed, were much less obscure than those of Pythagoras. But Aristotle was the first who wholly laid allegory aside; and in considering Plato as the representative of the morals of Socrates, we must not forget that he has added to his master's principles much of his own manner.

The sages who obtained the distinguished title of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, directed their attention principally to morals; and conveyed their precepts in the shape of short and pointed aphorisms. Quintilian esteems them certain rules of life. As yet," said that eloquent writer, disputation had not obtained-but couching their instructions in a few expressive terms, they were presented as so many religious mysteries."§ One grand sentence may be produced, ascribed by some to Thales, and by others to Chilo, which while it explains this aphoristic mode of teaching, immortalizes the wisdom in which it originated"Know thyself." This was one of those precepts read in the temple of Delphos; and which Cicero so esteemed as to * Gale, b. ii. c. 7. vol. ii. p. 167. &c. + Plato. Phoed. and Repub. 6. and 10. Coel. Redig. lib. 9. cap. 12. § Quint. lib. 5. c. 11.

call it the precept of Apollo; and he remarks, with singular beauty, that it was given not exclusively to humble man by sending him into his bosom to learn its weakness, but principally, to urge him to form an acquaintance with his own soul, in all the majesty of its powers, and all the importance of their application.*

These characteristics of the earliest method of teaching morals, lead us still higher towards their indisputable source. The parabolic mode of instruction is notoriously oriental: so also is the proverbial form chosen by the seven Grecian Sages. The institutes of Menu may afford a sufficient evidence of the latter; while the gorgeous imagery interwoven with the very texture of Eastern composition, proves the former. The Grecian poets, older than these historians and philosophers, (for even Thales, Chilo, and his celebrated associates, lived more than than three centuries after Hesiod,) chose allegory, the very garb of poetry, as the grand vehicle of their moral sentiments. And while their mythological traditions may be distinctly traced to an oriental origin, their fables were regarded by the sages of Greece as containing philosophical truths, under the veil of fiction. Doubtless they drew their ethics from the sources whence they derived their philosophy; and the very form in which Hesiod gives his moral precepts, combines both the characteristics of aphorism and poetry.

Thales, although said to be born at Miletus, is contended to have been of Phenician extract; and it is certain, that he travelled into Asia to acquire oriental wisdom. Pythagoras is known to have traversed various countries in that direction, and to have extended his researches as far as India. Plato visited Egypt, then the receptacle of the learning of the world-having received her knowledge from the latter-and confesses that the principles of his philosophy, as well as the use of symbols, were derived from older nations, whom, in conformity to the usage of the Greeks, relative to all people except themselves, he calls Barbarians. The Phenicians, as the earliest navigators, carried the sciences, and the symbols under which they were couched, from the oriental world, and from Egypt immediately to Greece, and even to Britain; whose Druids, more ancient than those of Gaul, resembled in many striking points, as well of philosophy, as of religious observances, the Hindus; and shew in the most obvious particulars, the oriental origin of their system.

*Cic. Tuscab. I. 22, &c.

It is difficult to obtain information relative to the origination of ancient science, from any records except those of sacred history. From whatever fountains the sages of India drew their theories, it is evident that those of Greece drank of the same wells of knowledge. The philosophical schools of the East comprise the metaphysics of the different sects of Grecian philosophy; and, as oriental systems are unquestionably older than those of Greece, if a real analogy subsists, it must have been imparted to the latter: it could not have been derived from them by the former. The grand and favourite doctrine of Pythagaras, relative to the transmigration of souls, adopted even in the purer and more simple philosophy of Plato, is so evidently of Eastern origin, that it becomes a powerful argument in support of the hypothesis of the derivation of other parts of the same system from the same quarter. And with the general principles of philosophy, came their Ethics, both as to substance and to the form of communication. Conjecture and hypothesis may, however, be well spared, when we have the testimony of Diodorus Siculus direct to this point. "All those," he says, "who were renowned among the Greeks for wisdom and learning, did in ancient time resort to Egypt, thence to deduce philosophy and laws." The peculiar dogmas of the Grecian philosophers are respectively acquired from Egypt, Phenicia, Chaldea, India, and Persia. The sun of knowledge rose, like the orb of day, in the East. Certain terms, and even the names of their idols, are by the Grecians borrowed from the Egyptians, between whose language, and that of the Phenicians and Chaldeans, is such an affinity, that they may, with little difficulty, be traced to an Hebrew origin.

Having touched upon this point, I will venture to remind you, that there is a book, the most ancient of all existing records for even should its inspiration be denied, none pretend to question its antiquity-in which the purest moral precepts, and the most sublime religious truths, are seen veiled in parables, couched under symbols, and communicated in proverbs. To this book may be traced as well the traditions of the East, as the systems of Greece; and as an important fact, it it is necessary to remark, that if we are desirous of following the history of morals up to its springhead, sound learning and diligent research have found, in this neglected volume, the grand and inexhaustible source after which the world has been so long looking; and which, like the fountains of the Nile, lay concealed from ages and generations.