The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature

To the Reader

7 to the reader The Translator having observed, in most of the Disputes wherewith the present Age is disquieted, frequent Appeals made, and that very properly, from Laws and Ordinances of a meaner Rank to the everlasting Law of Nature, gave himself the Pains to turn over several Writers on that Subject. He chanced, he thinks with great Reason, to entertain an Opinion, that this Author was the clearest, the fullest, and the most unprejudiced of any he met with: And hereupon, that he might the better possess himself of his Reasonings , he attempted to render the Work into Mother-Tongue, after he had first endeavoured to set several better Hands upon the Undertaking, who all for one Reason or other declined the Toil. He thought when ’twas done, it might be as acceptable to one or other to read it, as it had been to himself to translate it. Concerning the Author, ’tis enough to say, that he has surely had as great Regard paid him from Personages of the highest degree, as perhaps ever was given to the most learned of Men; having been invited from his Native Country, first by the Elector Palatine, to be Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations in the University of Heidelberg; then by the King of Sweden to honour his new rais’d Academy, by accepting the same Charge therein, and afterwards being admitted of the Council, and made Historiographer, both to the same King, and to his Electoral Highness of Brandenburgh, afterwards King of Prussia. Concerning this his Work, it is indeed only as it were an Epitome of the Author’s large Volume of The Law of Nature and Nations: But as this Epitome was made and published by himself, the Reader cannot be under any doubt, but that he has here the Quintessence of what is there deliver’d; what is par’d off being mostly Cases in the Civil Law, Refutations of other 8 the whole duty of man Authors, and some Notions too fine and unnecessary for a Manual. How good an Opinion the learned World has of this his Performance, is very evident from the many Editions there have been of it, not only in the Original Latin, but in the Modern Languages, publish’d in Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, and England.1 Since2 the first Publication hereof in 1673, at Lunden, the Author revis ’d his larger Work, and put out a new Edition of it, with many Additions and great Improvements; and from thence this Work also has been amended and enlarged, by extracting these additional Chapters, and inserting them as compendiously as might be into their proper Places; which was first done in a German Translation,3 and afterwards in a Latin Edition, published by the Professor of Giessen,4 both in the Life-time of the Author, with his Knowledge, and by his Approbation;5 so that the Reader may be satisfied that these Additions, now first inserted into this Translation, are as genuine as the Rest of the Work; as he will find them as useful and necessary a Part, as any of the whole Book. Besides these, in this Impression, some other Additions and Alterations have been found necessary to be made: For whereas in some Places the Author’s Opinion was delivered in so brief or obscure a Manner, that his Meaning seemed difficult to be apprehended; again in other Places the Coherence and Connection of his Discourses did not sufficiently appear; to remedy the former of these Defects, all intricate Phrases 1. There were also Danish, Russian, and Spanish translations of the De officio. There were Latin editions in Sweden but none in the national tongue until 1747. 2. This and the following paragraph were added to Tooke’s foreword by the anonymous editors of the 1716/35 edition, referred to hereafter as “the editors.” Here they indicate the changes to Tooke’s first edition of 1691, albeit none too accurately. 3. This translation, which was undertaken by Immanuel Weber, appeared in 1691 under the title Einleitung zur Sitten- und Statslehre, oder, Kurze Vorstellung der Schuldigen Gebühr aller Menschen, und insonderbereit der Bürgerlichen Stats-Verwandten, nach Anleitung derer Natürlichen Rechte (Introduction to Moral and Political Philosophy , or, Short Presentation of the Bounden Duty of All Men, Especially the Civil StateRelated , in Accordance with the Teachings of Natural Laws). 4. This probably refers to the Latin edition published at Giessen...