PREFACE. THE work itself will show the precise branch to which I have assigned the name of Political Ethics; it remains for me only to give here the assurance that the second part, containing a discussion of those many relations in which a citizen finds himself called upon to act, and for which, however important, the positive law does not or cannot furnish a sufficient rule of action, will be offered to the public at the beginning of the next year if I remain in health. The present volume forms, as may be conjectured from the title, a separate whole of itself, and has for that reason been called part first, and not volume first. In carrying the work through the press, I have derived great advantage from the valuable advice and indefatigable kindness of my friend, Mr. George S. Hillard, of Boston. He has done to me, and I fondly hope through me to the public, a service which literary men will know how to appreciate, especially those who write in an idiom which they have not learned from their mother's lips. Columbia, S. C., United States of America, August, 1838. |