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Jealoufie.

foon as thefe become Certainties, then the Paffion either ceases, or turns abfolute Madness.

Jealoufie is always born with Love, but it does not always dye with it.

Unfaithfulness ought to quench our Love quite; and we do ill to be jealous when there is no Reafon : No body deferves the Jealoufie of another, who will give any jnft occafion for it.

Jealoufie is not fo much the effect of the Love of another, as the Love of our felves.

The reason why the pains we feel from Shame and Jealoufie are fo fmart and cutting, is, because Vanity cannot affift us to bear them.

Fealonfie is the greatest of Evils, least pity'd by those that occasion it.

IN

Interef.

and yet the

Ntereft fpeaks all manner of Languages, and acts all forts of Parts, even that of Impartiality. Intereft makes fome People blind, and others quickfighted.

We Promise according to our Hopes, and perform according to our Fears.

Virtues are loft in Intereft, as Rivers are fwallowed up in the Sea.

The bare Name and Pretence of Virtue, is more ferviceable to a Man's Intereft than Vice.

Intereft puts Men upon exercifing Virtues and Vices, as the Occafion requires.

Intereft, upon which we generally lay the blame of all our ill Actions, oftentimes deferves to be commended for our good ones.

Luxury and too great Delicacy of Manners in a State, are infallible Symptoms of its Declension: For when Men are fo over-curious and nice in their own Concerns and Interests, the Good of the Publick is generally neglected.

Magnanimity defpifes all, that it may grasp all. Whofoever gains by the Dead, has not much Kindness for the Living.

Intereft fuperfedes all Arguments of Affection and Confanguinity.

Juftice, Injustice, Judgment.

Uftice, in ftrict fpeaking, is nothing else, but a quick and intimate Fear of lofing one's own. This makes Men tender of their Neighbours Property and Interefts, and religioully careful not to invade it. This Fear holds Men in, within the compass of that Estate which either Birth or Fortune has given them; and were it not for this, they would continually be making Incurfions upon one another. Juftice, in moderate and well-behav'd Judges, is often only the love of their Preferment.

We except against fome Judges in matters of very little concern, when at the fame time we are con. tent to have our Reputation and Honour depend upon the Judgment of Men,which are byafs'd against us, either by Jealoufie,, Prejudice, or Ignorance: And we expofe our Eafe and our Loves only to bribe them, to give Sentence in our Favour. Men

Men and Actions are like Objects of Sight, and have also their Points of Perfpective; fome must bé feen at a distance, and others, at clofe view, to be exactly judged of.

The Judgmonts our Enemies make concerning us, come nearer to the Truth, than thofe we pafs con cerning our felves.

Every one erects a Court of Judicature for himfelf; There he fits fupream Judge over his Neighbour, and proceeds upon him in as Arbitrary and Authoritative a manner, as if he had fome particuFar Prerogative over him. But, methinks, we fhould be more modeft and fparing, in paffing Sentence thus upon others, if we did but confider, that they too will take the fame Freedoms, and ufe us with the fame Severity, when in their power.

* Of all Injustices,that is the most abominable and capital, which impofes upon us under the colour of Kindness and good Meaning.

It is not only generous, but profitable too, for a Man in fome Cafes to remit fomewhat of the strictnefs of his juft due.

The Duty of a Judge is to adminifter Fuftice, and his Trade to delay it: Some know their Duty, and only follow their Trade.

Thofe that make ill Judgments of us, without being acquainted with us, do not wrong us in the lealt; 'tis not us they Condemn, but only an imaginary Chimera of their own making.

We are revenged upon the ill Judgments fome Men make of our Wit and Manners, by the Unworthi nefs of thofe they approve of.

The Wickedness of other Men we have always in our Eye, but we caft our own over our Shoulders. He that loves his Neighbour's Wife, and for that very Reafon, becaufe fhe is anothers, locks

up

up his own: better Son.

And a worfe Father Chaftifes a

* It is very hard to find an equal Judge: There are no greater exacters of Faith, than the Perfidious; no greater Perfecutors of Falfhood, than the Perjurious: A Tyrant is offended at Bloodshed, the Sacrilegious punishes Theft, and the greater part of the World quarrels with the Offender, rather than with the Offence.

*It is with Juftice as with fick Men: In time past, when we had fewer Doctors, as well of Law as of Phyfick, we had more Right and more Health: But we are now destroy'd, by Multitudes and Confultations, which ferve to no other end, than to enflame both the Distemper and the Reckoning.

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*It may feem fomewhat a hard Cafe for the greater Thieves to punish the lefs, and for Publick Purloiners and Oppreffors to fit in Triumph upon the Lives of the little ones, that go to the Gallows for the Tye of Morality is the fame upon both, and they stand both accountable to the fame Master: But Time, Power and Corruption give a Reputation to the worst of Practices; and it is no longer Oppreffion when it comes gilded with the name of Authority. Now in the fight of Heaven, the greater the Temptation, the lefs is the Sin; and yet in the Vogue of the World, it paffes for an Exploit of Honour, for Kings and States to run away with whole Countries, that they have no Colour or Pretence to; when many a poor Devil ftands condemn'd to a Halter, or a Wipping Post, for the pilfering of a Silver-Spoon perhaps, or the rob bing of a Hen Rooft.

We cannot judge of Characters of Things and Perfons, given at fecond hand, unless we know ex

aly

actly how capable thofe Perfons, from whom fuch Characters were first taken, were to pafs a right Judgment upon fuch Subjects; and alfo the particular Motives that byafs'd them to pass fuch Cenfures.

It is eafie for Men to fall into grofs Errors, and to mistake the wrong Caufes for the true, in the Judgment which they make of others Opinions and Inclinations: When they behold them addicted to fuch or fuch Vices, and to have withal fome good Qualities, in which they themselves do not excel, 1 they prefently are apt to imagine the bad to raise from the good, and fo condemn both together; whereas,perhaps, it fprung from fome other hidden Caufe, of which they took no notice.

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IT

Knowledge, Learning, Ignorance.

T is requifite in order to know things throughly well, to be acquainted with the Particulars of them; but thefe being Infinite,and not to be attain'd to in this Life; Our Sciences are conequently very fuperficial and imperfect.

There are two forts of Curiofity, the first which proceeds from Intereft, is a defire to learn things that can be useful and beneficial to us; the other which fprings from Pride, is a defire of being wifer than our Neighbours.

'Tis much easier to know what Men are in general, than to know a fingle Man in particular.

The love of new Notions and greater Knowledge, proceeds not fo much from our being weary of what we had before, or any Satisfaction there is in Change, as from the concern for being too little admir'd by thofe that know us well, and from the

hope

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