AN ENQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF HONOUR AND The Usefulness of
CHRISTIANITY IN WAR.

By the Author of the FABLE of the BEES.
[Bernard Mandeville]


THE PREFACE.


I take it for granted, that a Christian is not bound to believe any
Thing to have been of Divine Institution, that has not been declared
to be such in Holy Writ. Yet great Offence has been taken at an Essay,
in the First Part of the Fable of the _Bees_, call'd An Enquiry into the
Origin of Moral Virtue; notwithstanding the great Caution it is wrote
with. Since then, it is thought Criminal to surmise, that even Heathen
Virtue was of Human Invention, and the Reader, in the following
Dialogues, will find me to persist in the Opinion, that it was; I beg
his Patience to peruse what I have to say for my self on this Head,
which is all I shall trouble him with here.

The Word Morality is either synonimous with Virtue, or signifies that
Part of Philosophy, which treats of it, and teaches the Regulation of
Manners; and by the Words Moral Virtue, I mean the same Thing which I
believe Every body else does. I am likewise fully persuaded that to
govern our selves according to the Dictates of Reason, is far better
than to indulge the Passions without Stop or Controul, and
consequently that Virtue is more beneficial than Vice, not only for
the Peace and real Happiness of Society in general, but likewise for
the Temporal Felicity of every individual Member of it, abstract from