Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I ON NATURAL LAWS
- CHAPTER II OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS
- CHAPTER III TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENTS OF THE LAWS OF NATURE
- CHAPTER IV ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I ON NATURAL LAWS
- CHAPTER II OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS
- CHAPTER III TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENTS OF THE LAWS OF NATURE
- CHAPTER IV ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX
Summary
This Essay would not have been presented to the Public, had I not believed that it contains views of the constitution, condition, and prospects of Man, which deserve attention; but these, I trust, are not ushered forth with any thing approaching to a presumptuous spirit. I lay no claim to originality of conception. My first notions of the natural laws were derived from an unpublished manuscript of Dr Spurzheim, with the perusal of which I was honoured some years ago; and all my inquiries and meditations since have impressed me more and more with a conviction of their importance. The materials employed lie open to all. Taken separately, I would hardly say that a new truth has been presented in the following work. The parts have all been admitted and employed again and again, by writers on morals, from Socrates down to the present day. In this respect, there is nothing new under the sun. The only novelty in this Essay respects the relations which acknowledged truths hold to each other. Physical laws of nature, affecting our physical condition, as well as regulating the whole material system of the universe, are universally acknowledged, and constitute the elements of natural philosophy and chemical science. Physiologists, medical practitioners, and all who take medical aid, admit the existence of organic laws: And the science of government, legislation, education, indeed our whole train of conduct through life, proceed upon the admission of laws in morals.
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- The Constitution of ManConsidered in Relation to External Objects, pp. vii - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1828