Ethical Handbook

To the Reader.

...I felt myself to be wonderfully refreshed and soothed.

Finally, I argued that this effort would be unnecessary, since a certain man—most excellent and learned, as they themselves know—was already planning a most perfect Ethical Work on that primary Question concerning the immutable principles of Good and Evil original: Opus Ethicum de primaria illa Quæſtione circa immutabiles Boni Malique rationes. This likely refers to Ralph Cudworth, a fellow Cambridge Platonist, though his work on the subject was not published until much later.; a work which, I said, I hoped would soon be published. I strongly pressed these arguments against them.

They, however, replied that it would be of the greatest importance in these times if someone were to arrange such Ethical Elements original: Rudimenta Ethica; basic principles or foundational teachings of morality. in so clear an order and derivation that the reasoning behind all the Precepts original: Præceptorum ratio; the logic or "the why" behind moral rules. would be easily plain to anyone. For such is the spirit of the present age: people demand the Causes of all things, and they argue that the human Mind is bound by nothing except Right Reason original: Recta Ratio; a central concept in this era's philosophy, referring to the innate human capacity to perceive universal moral truths through logic and divine light.. A work of this kind, so skillfully crafted, would greatly delight the virtuous, and would successfully instill those divine feelings of the soul in those who perhaps lack them.

Furthermore, as far as those more "pleasant" studies are concerned The author likely refers to his more abstract metaphysical or poetic interests., they can be set aside for a time and resumed later: nor should private...