SIX SERMONS ON MORAL SUBJECTS. A SEQUEL TO THE THREE SERMONS ON HUMAN NATURE. EDITED BY W. WHEWELL, D.D., MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF MORAL WITH A PREFACE AND A SYLLABUS OF THE WORK. CAMBRIDGE: JOHN DEIGHTON. LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER. M.DCCC.XLIX. EDITOR'S PREFACE. D R. BUTLER'S Three Sermons On Human Nature were recently published separately, as containing the leading points in his view of the moral nature of man; but in truth, no one can have a complete notion of Butler's moral philosophy, without taking into his consideration also the doctrines delivered in his other sermons, especially those concerning Compassion, Resentment, and the Relation of Benevolence to Self-love. These are the subjects of the Six Sermons which I now publish, and which are the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, eleventh and twelfth, of the Fifteen Sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel. The leading aims of these Six Sermons are in a great measure the same with those of the Three Sermons which I have already edited; namely, the establishment of a true view of the nature of man, in opposition to the systems of Hobbes and others, which resolve all man's actions into selfish regards; and |