INAUGURAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED UPON THE AUTHOR'S INDUCTION INTO THE OFFICE OF PROFESSOR OF NATURAL RELIGION, MORAL PHILOSOPHY, AND CIVIL POLITY, IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY; NOVEMBER 5, 1817. It is well known, that the topics, which fall within the province of this Professorship, are not now for the first time made a part of the instruction in this University. They have always, in connexion with the philosophy of the mind, received their due portion of attention. But the liberality of Mr. Alford has at length enabled the Corporation to divide studies, heretofore united in a single department; a measure which the increased number of our students seems at this time peculiarly to require. Leaving therefore the science of our intellectual nature, a science the most subtile and profound, and which lays the foundation of our speculations in taste as well as morals, to the talents and researches of an experienced and tried Professor, they have assigned natural religion, moral philosophy, and civil polity to a distinct instructer. On this occasion, which intro duces that instructer to his office, he has thought that some remarks upon the necessity, the objects, and influence of moral philosophy would not be uninteresting or unappropriate. Moral philosophy, in strict propriety, is the science of the principles and obligation of duty; but in the observations I may now make, I shall have reference also to all those studies and inquiries, which have for their object the knowledge and improvement of the moral condition of man. The doctrine of a moral sense has furnished the first objection to the necessity of moral science. It has often been said, the heart is the best casuist, and its natural promptings the safest guides in duty. But in respect to this objection it must be carefully remembered, that we are not to form our estimate of the value of natural conscience from the prevalent opinions of civilized and christian countries. The moral sense of the most unlearned at the present day is not the sense of nature, but of cultivation; it has been modified by the studies and experience of ages, and above all, by the christian religion. It is not denied, that we have from nature a moral as well as an intellectual capacity; but the former, no less than the latter, is to be improved and enlarged' by observation and thought. Many duties arise from relations, which are complicated and remote ; . these relations must be investigated and brought together, and general principles, which may be settled into rules, deduced from them. The necessity of this is sufficiently shown by the different and contradictory maxims of duty, that have prevailed in different ages and nations. Were, however, the original suggestions of uncultivated conscience far clearer and more decisive than experience will allow us to believe, still the necessity of philosophy would not be superseded. The unremitted labors of the moralist would notwithstanding be required, to relieve the sentiments of mankind from those associations of prejudice, of fashion, and of false opinion, which have so constant an influence in perverting the judgment and corrupting the heart, and to bring them back to the unbiassed dictates of nature and common sense. Besides, the moral constitution of man, his relations, and duties, are subjects too interesting, and too fruitful of remark, to be neglected in the speculations of the ingenious and inquiring. Erroneous theories will be formed, nay they will be presented to mankind as the rule of life, and even history and fiction be made vehicles of principles, dangerous alike to virtue and to peace. While indeed these speculations of false philosophy are wrapped in metaphysical subtilties, they may excite little alarm, and serve rather to amuse the learned; they are those eccentrick lightnings, that play harmlessly in the evening cloud; but when they are made the maxims of common life, or embodied in popular fiction, find their way into the hearts of men, they are these same lightnings concentrated and brought down to earth, blasting and consuming. The safety of society then requires, that such systems be subjected to the jealous scrutiny of a sound philosophy, and that there be men, whose habits and studies will lead them to a rigid superintendence of whatever is proposed;-to give authority to truth, and to detect and expose what is only specious and insinuating. If our moral being could be left, as it came from the hands of its Creator, to the simple and wholesome viands of nature, if it breathed only the pure atmosphere of truth, it might perhaps preserve the soundness of health, and the ingenuous suffusions of virtue; but pampered, as it is, with false philosophy and factitious sentiment, the antidote should grow with the poison. There will always be a Hobbes, a Rousseau or a Godwin; let us then have also our Cudworths, our Butlers, and our Stewarts. As a second objection to moral science, it has been asked, do not the Scriptures furnish a perfect rule of right? God hath given us the Bible, and |
