TREATISE

O F

MORALITY,

Form'd upon the PRINCIPLES of

Natural Reafon only.

WITH

A Preface in Anfwer to two Essays
lately published in the Fable of the Bees.
And fome incidental REMARKS upon an
Inquiry concerning Virtue, by the Right
Honourable Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury.

By RICHARD FIDDES, D. D.
Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Oxford and
Earl Mortimer.

LONDON:

Printed for S. BILLINGSLEY at the Judge's
Head in Chancery-Lane. M.DCC.XXIV.
8. Y. 681. AS.

V

BIBL

THEC

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE

Earl of Pembroke, &c. Knight of the most noble Order of the GARTER, C.

..

All

the ufual Forms on the like
Occafions; but confine my
felf to the fubject Matter of
the following Treatife.
the Topicks, indeed, which
are proper to exhibit the I-
dea of a great Man, have
been already employed by
the finest Pens of the Age,
in this Method of doing Ho-
mage to your Lordship, as
the known Patron of Learn-
ing in general: And I shall
not pretend to copy after fo
many of the best Masters,
native and foreign. I was
principally induced to Re-
queft, with all Humility,
your

your Lordship's Patronage of this Work, from the Nature and Defign of it. For no Principles, or Rules of any Kind, ever operate with fo great Force, as when we confirm, and illustrate them by living Examples, efpecially, from very high, and confpicuous Stations; where moft, if not all, the great Offices in civil Life have been fucceffively fuftained with a juft, but easy, Dignity. For fuch Inftances fhew, in the beft Light, that the Maxims of Morality, which are fo reasonable,

or

and