The Word _Moral_, without Doubt, comes from _Mos_, and signifies every Thing that relates to Manners: The Word _Ethick_ is synonimous with _Moral_, and is derived from [Greek: ithik], which is exactly the same in _Greek_, that _Mos_ is in _Latin_. The _Greek_ for Virtu, is [Greek: arete], which is derived from [Greek: ares], the God of War and properly signifies Martial Virtue. The same Word in _Latin_, if we believe _Cicero_, comes from _Vir_; and the genuine Signification likewise of the Word _Virtus_ is Fortitude. It is hardly to be conceived, but that in the first Forming of all Societies, there must have been Struggles for Superiority; and therefore it is reasonable to imagine, that in all the Beginnings of Civil Government, and the Infancy of Nations, Strength and Courage must have been the most valuable Qualifications for some Time. This makes me think, that _Virtus_, in its first Acceptation, might, with great Justice and Propriety, be in _English_ render'd _Manliness_; which fully expresses the Original Meaning of it, and shews the Etymology equally with the _Latin_; and whoever is acquainted with that Language must know, that it was some ages before the _Romans_ used it in any other Sense. Nay, to this Day, the Word _Virtus_ by it self, in any of their Historians, has the same Signification, as if the Word _Bellica_ had been added. We have Reason to think, that, as First, Nothing was meant by _Virtus_, but Daring and Intrepidity, right or wrong; or else if could never have been made to signify Savageness, and brutish Courage; as _Tacitus_, in the Fourth Book of his History, makes use of it manifestly in that Sense. Even Wild Beasts, says he, if you keep them shut up, will lose their Fierceness. _Etiam sera animalia, si clausa teneas, virtutis obliviseuntur_.