should dispute. You have employed only truth and good manners in your Apology, while your. Adversary has had recourse to abuse and evasions, which proves that controversy, with some writers, is always accompanied by satire.

I have not had an opportunity to read with attention your excellent Dissertation upon the Monument which was lately discovered at Pompeio. I have no doubt of your having victoriously terminated the dispute which arose among the Antiquaries upon that subject. You need only dread the Academicians of Naples, who are so very jealous of what belongs to them, that every foreigner appears guilty in their eyes who presumes to write upon the Antiquities of Pompeio or Herculaneum.

You cannot be ignorant of their late behaviour. to our dear and illustrious Abbé Winchelman..

I beg you will not desist from your labours; and I pray you to be convinced that I will let slip no opportunity of proving to you the perfect esteem with which I am,

Your most devoted servant,

ROME, Convent of the Holy Apostles,

This 14th September, 1768.

GANGANELLI

LETTER

LETTER CXLV.

TO THE REVEREND FATHER CORSI.

REVEREND FATHER,

YOU can do nothing better than compose a Treatise of Ethics, as a companion for those books of Theology of which you are the author. Philosophy gives only a very succinct exposition of morals; and in every condition it is necessary to know thoroughly what regulates our manners, and serves us as a compass in the midst of the revolutions and the dangers of life.-Morality, as the basis of Probity and Christianity, is always useful, whereas the other Sciences can serve only occasionally.

But neither among the ancient nor modern Philosophers are you to seek for Morality such as it should be taught, and such as it ought to be practised. The bosom of God is the great book in which its excellency and its pre

cepts

cepts are found: from his Divine Will are our obligations derived, and as he has established the most wonderful and most harmonious order in all parts of the universe, in like manner has he bound our understanding, our heart, our soul, our passions, our appetites, in so firm connexion that every thing in us naturally concurs to make us well with ourselves and with our neighbours.

Morality is not enough insisted upon, though that Science has so extensive and numerous ramifications, that families, societies, cities, courts, em-pires are supported only by its happy influence, and by the virtue it has to point out to us, in the clearest and most exact manner, our duty to God, to our Neighbour, and ourselves.

One thing admirable is, that among the multitude of obligations recommended to us by Morality, and to which we are subjected both by our nature and dependence, Charity, which really subsists only in the true Religion, makes us, without any other aid, good parents, good friends, good citizens, good subjects. Under the most modest exterior it comprehends in all that we can desire in whatever rank Providence may have placed us.-The heathen virtues wanted that divine sap which

E 5

which brings forth fruits worthy of eternity.-The wisdom of the ancient Philosophers knew not that Heavenly principle which gives to Christian souls the blessing of meriting eternal happiness.

This is a point you cannot too much insist upon in your intended Treatise of Morals, for thus you will rise to the source of the true virtues, and be able to distinguish them from those which are only their shadows. To relieve our neighbour from a natural emotion is a good action, but not to do that action for God's sake is far from being good.

In this case we may say, * Hæc opportuit facere, et illa non omittere; and repeat the axiom so well known in our schools, Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu †.

The grand precepts of Morality are the same in all nations, because they are imprinted on our hearts. The same hand which traced the image of its omnipotence in the Heavens, in characters of flame, engraved our principal duties in our souls. Our heart is a table of the decalogue which

*These things you ought to have done, and not to have left the others undone.

+ Good results from integrity of principle, ill from any defect.

cannot

cannot be broken, but which our passions would obliterate, did not the voice of conscience reproach us with our errors.

Evangelical Morality is, above all others, suited to the nature of Man, because it teaches him to feel his weakness, and to know his dignity. It unites the earth and the Heaven whence we sprung as being a portion of clay and the image of the Deity, in order to present us with a living picture of our duties and our destinies.----Pagan Morality engenders Pride,Christian Morality brings forth Humility. I expect to see all these things displayed at full length in your work. St. Thomas has written on Morality in a manner which must excite the most lively admiration. You will doubtless read what he says on that head: this is all I can say, only adding the esteem and friendship with which, &c.

ROME, this 22d Jan. 1747.

LETTER