page 38
It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous was not sufficient to prevent our slipping, and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I met in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I proposed to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning.
These names of virtues, with their precepts were:
- Temperance
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
- Silence
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
- Order
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
- Resolution
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
- Frugality
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself, i.e., waste nothing.
- Industry
Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
- Sincerity.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
- Justice
Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
- Moderation
Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
- Cleanliness
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
- Tranquillity
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
- Chastity
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
- Humility
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day