CONTENTS To promote temporal and eternal happiness, the LETTER III. Same subject continued Idea of accountableness- how first acquired—Accountableness to God-The importance of this principle illusnecessary to all — peculiarly necessary trated 26 LETTER IV. A belief in the presence of God, a practical principle necessarily connected with the idea of accountableness - The comfort arising from this belief in the presence of the Deity - Confidence which it inspires in God, as watching over our temporal and eternal welfare 43 LETTER V. Same subject continued - Advantages resulting from the early cultivation of feelings and habits of devotion Prayer considered as a mean of fixing a sense of the Divine Presence in the mind the reason why it sometimes fails in producing this eff.ct-Advantages of studying the works of God in the volume of creation Natural history recommended - 55 LETTER LETTER VI. Examination of the principles of truth and justice Tendency of the passions to mislead from truth-Belief in the presence of God the best security against being thus misled - Principles of honour, when founded merely on a regard to the opinion of the world, how little. to be depended on-A sense of the Divine Presence essential to the formation of a strict principle of justice 73 LETTER VII. Consideration of the objections commonly urged against the practice of sincerity — Sincerity not incompatible with politeness-Of dissimulation in its various modifications - All dissimu lation repugnant to moral rectitude - Of the obligation to justice and candour in forming an estimate of the merits of others. Of the turpitude of detraction and calumny - Of the perverse misrepresentations arising from misconception and inaccuracy - Of the spurious candour subversive of moral principle Advantages attending the practice of charity and forbearance Of the common propensity to receive impressions to the prejudice of others -- various sources of this propensity in different characters- shewn to be inimical to moral improvement Of the supposed disadvantages resulting from the opposite propensity- A tendency to receive favourable impressions of others, productive of the benevolent affections, and conducive to happiness - Of the obligation to make a proper use of influence - Of different degrees of influence Of the personal influence common to individuals in every situation in life Of the influence derived from birth, fortune, rank, talents, virtue Of the relative duties attached to the acquisition of influence its important operation in society — Of the obligation to resist motives of a selfish nature - Personal satire - why objectionable — The practice of self-denial essential to a strict observance of the principles of justice LETTER VIII. 91 Importance of forming a correct standard of moral rectitude - Necessity of regulating the conduct by fixed principles Immo al and unjust actions produced in feeble characters by the want of fixed principles Illustration by a familiar narrative 121 LETTER |