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DESIGNED FOR A NATIONAL MANUAL OF MORAL SCIENCE, IN AMERICAN
SEMINARIES OF EDUCATION, AND PRIVATE FAMILIES.

BY JESSE TORREY, JUNR.

Human Happiness is founded upon Wisdom and Virtue. SENECA.

""Tis ignorance mainly binds people in chains:

"Tis this too, the empire of folly maintains:

Vice shrinks from instruction, like darkness from light:

And despots shun noontide and covet the right."

TWENTY-FIFTH EDITION.

Philadelphia:

PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY JOHN GRIGG, NO. 9, NORTH FOURTH
STREET, AND SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS AND COUNTRY

MERCHANTS GENERALLY.

Stereotyped by J. Howe.
1830.

Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-second day of November, in the forty-eighth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1823, Jesse Torrey, junior, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the following words, to wit:

L. S.

"The Moral Instructor, and Guide to Virtue: being a Compendium of Moral Philosophy. In eight parts. Part 1. Original Essays on the Diffusion of Knowledge, Moral Reformation, &c.-2. Epitome of the Moral precepts of the Bible.-3. Abridgment of the Lives and Moral Discourses of Confueius and Socrates, and Seneca's Morals.-4. Abridgment of the Law of Nature, and the Economy of Human Lite.-5. Abridgment of Fenn's Maxims, Paley's Moral Philosophy, and Knigge's Art of Conversing with Men.-6. Selections from Franklin's Works.-7. Miscellaneous Articles.-8. Pope's Essay on Man, &c. Designed for a National Manual of Moral Science, in American Seminaries of Education, and private Families. By Jesse Torrey, junr. Human Happiness is founded upon Wisdom and Virtue. SENECA. ""Tis ignorance mainly binds people in chains:

"Tis this too, the empire of folly maintains:

Vice shrinks from instruction, like darkness from light:
And despots shun noontide and covet the night."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,” and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the

Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Blanche Harlic 9.4.42

TO THE PEOPLE

OF

THE UNITED STATES.

THE design of the following compendium, is more to disseminate useful instruction among all classes of society, than to gratify literary taste or curiosity.

The Author has long cherished the conviction, that if the community would appropriate as much wealth to the diffusion of useful knowledge among the rising generation, as is now devoted to the punishment instead of the prevention of crimes and vice, the desired object would be attained, and human misery averted to a much greater

extent.

But a small proportion of the people have the means to purchase, or leisure to study voluminous systems of Moral Philosophy. On the contrary, dogmatical, sententious precepts, unsupported by demonstration, are not generally convincing, nor adapted to the independent spirit of human nature. Whenever men shall resolve to make moral rectitude their inflexible rule of action, each individual must be persuaded i.. his own mind, independently of the dictations of others, that his own welfare will be thereby promoted, as well as that of his neighbors.

It is but of little avail to the majority of the human family, that philosophers of different ages and nations have exerted their talents in perfecting the science of moral wisdom, as long as no one will take the pains to collect and concentrate the best fruits of their labors into a convenient portable vehicle for universal distribution, upon the boundless table of the PRINTING-PRESS.

The Compiler has been, for many years, impressed with the utility of such a work as the one now offered to the public; and has accordingly improved every means in his

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