PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. THE publishers having thought proper to give to the Elements of Moral Science a more permanent form, I have revised the work with all the care that my engagements would allow. In doing this, I have made many verbal alterations; I have modified some paragraphs; some I have transposed, and a few I have added. I embrace, with pleasure, this opportunity of returning my grateful acknowledgments to those gentlemen who, either privately or through the medium of the press, have favored me with their critical remarks. I have endeavored to weigh their suggestions with all the impartiality in my power. Where I have been convinced of error, I have altered the text. Where I have only doubted, I have suffered it to remain; as it seemed profitless merely to exchange one doubtful opinion for another. Where, notwithstanding the arguments advanced, my views remained unchanged, I have also contented myself with allowing the text to stand without additional remark. The reasons for so doing may be very briefly stated:-I supposed that those considerations in favor of what I had advanced, which occurred to me, would naturally occur to any other person; and I seem to myself to have observed that the public really take very little interest in the controversies of authors. A very considerable amount of manuscript, which I had prepared for the purpose of publication, in connection with this edition, I have therefore suffered to lie quietly in my desk. BROWN UNIVERSITY, January 1837 By a comparison of the actions of men and inferior animals,.. From the necessity of this supremacy to the accomplishment of |