would include all their work.

With this explanation we shall use the terms *Prudence*, *Justice*,
*Fortitude*, and *Order* in the titles of the four following chapters, at
the same time claiming the liberty of employing these words, as we shall
find it convenient, in the more restricted sense which they commonly bear.

Chapter IX.

PRUDENCE; OR DUTIES TO ONE'S SELF.

Can there be *duties to one's self*, which are of absolute obligation?
Duties are dues, and they imply two parties,--one who owes them, and one to
whom they are due,--the debtor and the creditor. But the creditor may, at
his will, cancel the debt, and release the debtor. In selfward duties,
then, why may I not, as creditor, release myself as debtor? Why may I
not--so long as I violate no obligation to others--be, at my own pleasure,
idle or industrious, self-indulgent or abstinent, frivolous or serious?
Why, if life seem burdensome to me, may I not relieve myself of the
trouble of living? The answer is, that to every object in the universe
with which I am brought into relation I owe its fit use, and that no being
in the universe, not even the Omnipotent, can absolve me from this
obligation. Now my several powers and faculties, with reference to my
will, are objects on which my volitions take effect, and I am bound to
will their fit uses, and to abstain from thwarting or violating those
uses, on the same ground on which I am bound to observe and reverence the
fitnesses of objects that form no part of my personality. Moreover, this
earthly life is, with reference to my will, an object on which my
volitions may take effect; I learn--if not by unaided reason, from the
Christian revelation--that my life has its fit uses, both in this world and
in preparation for a higher state of being, and that these uses are often
best served by the most painful events and experiences; and I thus find
myself bound to take the utmost care of my life, even when it seems the
least worth caring for.

The *duties due to one's self* are self-preservation, the attainment of
knowledge, self-control, and moral self-culture.

Section I.

Self-Preservation.

The *uses of life*, both to ourselves, and to others through us, suffice,
as we have said, to render its preservation a duty, enjoined upon us by
the law of fitness. This duty is violated not only by suicide--against
which it is useless to