of affable kind or social Affection AND thus both with respect to Mental enjoyment and to the enjoyments of Sense also TO HAVE THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS IS TO HAVE THE CHIEFEST SATISFACTION AND HAPPINESS OF LIFE NOW on the other side THAT TO WANT THE SAME NATURAL AFFECTIONS IS TO BE CHIEFLY MISERABLE appears first from the loss it implies both of the mental and bodily Pleasures and also from its carrying with it the horridest of pains those of the Mind of which sort if by what shall further be prov'd those deriv'd from unnatural and horrid Affections appear to be the very worst it will follow that since according to what has bin prov'd already unnatural and horrid Affection is and must ever be consequent to the loss of natural and good that therefore to want natural and good Affection is certainly to incar the greatest of Torments and Diseases BUT before we conclude as to this of natural Affection we may add something in general of the BALANCE of the Affection of which we gave some hint before and by this endeavor to demonstrate how that for want of a due proportion or balance in natural Affection a Creature is at a loss and uneasy disturb'd and ill affected in his other Passions THERE is no body who has consider'd ever so little the nature of the sensible part the Soul or Mind but knows that in the same manner as without action motion and employment the Body languishes and is oppress'd its Nourishment grows the matter and food of Disease the Spirits unconsum'd help to consume the Body and Nature as it were preys upon it self so also that sensible and living part the Soul or Mind wanting its proper and natural exercise is burden'd and diseas'd and its Thoughts and Passions being unnaturally witheld from their due Objects turn against it self and create the highest impatience For the Mind or Soul which more than the Body requires agitation and exercise cannot be but in a state of Feeling or Passion of some kind and under some certain Affection or other if not under such Affection as may fitly employ it in proportionable and fit subject yet however under such as will make it a burden disease and torment to it self IN BRUTES and such as have not the use of Reason or Reflection at least not after the manner which Mankind has it is so order'd in Nature that between their daily search after Food their application and intention towards the business of their own immediate support or towards the affairs of their Kind almost their whole time is taken up and they fail not to find full imployment for their Passion according to that degree of agitation and vigor to which they are fitted and which their Nature requires If it happens that any one of these be taken out of a natural and laborious state to be plac'd in the midst of Ease and of a Plenty furnishing abundantly to all his Appetites and Wants it proves that as his Circumstances are luxuriant his Temper and Passions grow so too and that coming to have these accommodations at a cheaper rate with respect to Labor and Imployment than was intended him by Nature he is made to pay dearer for it in another sense by losing the good disposition of his Temper and Passions and the orderliness of his Kind or Species IT happens with Mankind that some by necessity are ty'd to Labor whilst others are provided for in an abundance of all things at the expence of the Labors of the rest Now if amongst those of this easy sort there be not something of fit and proper Imployment rais'd in the room of what is wanting by such a vacancy from common Labor and Toil if there be not an application to some sort of work such as has a good and honest end in Society as Letters Sciences Arts Husbandry public or privat Oeconomy or the like but that there be a settled Idleness Supiness and a relax'd and dissolute State it must needs produce as is always seen a total disorder of the Passions and must break out in the strangest irregularities imaginable It is not thus with those who are taken up in honest and due Imployment and have bin well inur'd to it as amongst the industrious sort of common People where it is rare to meet with any instances of those irregularities of Affection that are known in Courts and where Idleness reigns Neither may it be improper here to remark what many have done in advantage of Imployment and Application that where a Person necessitated from his youth to a Life of the most laborious sort has on a sudden chang'd his circumstances and become rich he has found in himself the uneasiness and ill operation of that Ease and Rest he so much wish'd for and having no other proper imployment to turn himself to he has again betaken himself to that Life out of choice to which before be was only driven and necessitated THERE is no need of going about by farther Instances and Argument to prove that as motion and exercise is of absolute necessity to the good state and welfare of the BODY so it is to that of THE MIND AND AFFECTIONATE PART NOW Nature having as we see evidently in Creatures made it so great a part of the natural imployment and exercise of the Mind and Passion to be applied and bent towards the Species and having suted and fram'd the rest of the Passions the whole Constitution and Oeconomy of the Creature to this it cannot but follow of consequence that where this social Bent and Affection is wanting the Mind and passionat Part must suffer much by the want of it being sure to create to themselves unusual and unnatural exercise where they are cut off from such as is natural and good And thus in the room of social and natural Affection new and unnatural ones must be rais'd and all Order and Oeconomy be thus destroy'd IT is to have a very imperfect idea of the Order of Nature in the formation and structure of Animals to think that so great a Principle so fundamental a Part as that of natural Affection in the Soul should be possibly lost or impair'd without mighty disorder calamity and injury to the Creature In the structure of the Body where all is so aptly adjusted there is not any of all those which are call'd the noble or principal Parts that can be wounded or hurt without the immediat disorder and sufferance of the whole Body Nor is this otherwise in the structure of the Passions and Affections which are with equal art and exactness suted and fram'd to one another to every different Creature and different Sex since we see the Whole so nicely built that the barely extending of one Passion but a little too far or the continuance of it too long is able to overturn all and bring irrecoverable ruin and misery by Distraction How is it possible therefore that in a System such as this a principle of
and convenience And how much may even this be reduc'd still and brought into a narrower compass if all superfluity being cut off Temperance and a natural Life were follow'd with near that application and earnestness that Sumptuousness and Luxury is practis'd by some and studi'd as an Art or Science Now where Temperance is found thus advantageous and the Practice as well as the Consequences of it so pleasing and happy there is little need to mention any thing of the miseries attending those covetous and eager desires after things that have no bounds or rule as being out of Nature beyond which there can be no limits or moderation set to Desire For where shall we once stop when we are over this when we are no longer contain'd within the bounds of Nature How shall we any way fix or ascertain a thing wholly unnatural and unreasonable Or what method or regulation shall we set to Excess or exorbitant Fancy in adding Expence to Expence or Possession to Possession Hence that natural restlesness of coveting and eager Minds in whatever state or degree of Fortune they are plac'd there being no thorow or real satisfaction but a kind of natural insatiableness belonging to this condition whence it comes that Injoyment is hinder'd since it is impossible that there should be any real enjoyment but of what is in consequence of natural and just Appetite Nor do we readily call that an Enjoyment of Wealth or of Honor when through Covetousness or Ambition the Desire is still forwards and rests not as satisfi'd with its gains But of this vice of Covetousness and the misery of it especially of that sort which is mere Avarice there is enough said in the world and in our common way of speaking a covetous and a miserable Temper has often but one and the same meaning NEITHER is there less known or said as to the ills of that other aspiring Temper and the self-torments of a swoln PRIDE and AMBITION which would be indeed but little felt in the World if those Passions were as much fought against and controul'd within as they are condemn'd abroad and own'd by every body to be unfortunat and tormenting But when one considers the ease happiness and the thousand advantages and securities which attend a satisfied Temper a free and easy Spirit such as can be accommodated on easy terms is fitted to Society and Fellowship and can sute it self with any reasonable circumstances it will not be necessary any further to suggest the excellence and good of Moderation and the mischief and self-injury of immoderat Desires and of a Mind that covets eagerly Fame Honor Superiority or Power THIS too is obvious in this place that as the Desires of this kind are rais'd and become impatient so the aversions and fears of the contrary side grow in proportion strong and violent and the Temper more subject to apprehensions from all events and more uncapable of bearing the least repulse or ordinary loss or disappointment And thus all quiet rest and security as to what is future and all peace contentedness and ease as to what is present is forfeited by having Desires of this kind and by having Appetites thus swelling and immoderat THERE is a Temper which is oft-times consider'd as in opposition to these eager and aspiring Aims of which we have been speaking not that it excludes the Passions either of Covetousness or Ambition but that it is the hindrance of their Effects and that by soothing of the Mind and softning it into an EXCESSIVE LOVE OF REST AND INDOLENCE it makes the attempts of those Passions to be impracticable and renders the difficulties of their painful and laborious course towards Wealth and Honors to be insuperable Now tho an inclination towards Ease a love of moderate repose and rest from Action be as natural and useful to us as that inclination we have towards Sleep and that to want such an inclination would be in the same manner an Ill as if we had not at proper times a strong and pressing inclination to sleep yet notwithstanding this an excessive love of Rest and a contracted hatred and aversion towards Action or Employment must be greatly injurious and be a disease in the Mind equal to that of a Lethargy in the Body and no less destructive of it by keeping it in a perpetual dulness and in-action than the other by keeping it in a perpetual slumber How much this of Action or Exercise is necessary for the Body let it be judg'd by the difference we find in the Constitutions that are accustom'd and those that are wholly strangers to it and by the different Health and Complexion which Labor and due Exercise create in comparison with that habit of Body which we see consequent to an indulg'd state of Indolence and Rest It is pleasing to observe what eager and impatient appetite towards Exercise Nature has given to Youth of all kinds in that desire of Play which is no other than the instigation or incitement of Nature to such an extraordinary motion of the Body as is at that time chiefly requisit Afterwards when grown up and no longer in their Parents but their own care when the subjects of labor increase and self-defence self-maintenance search of Food and Venery the consequent charge of the young and other Affairs begin to give them Imployment in abundance then is Ease and Quiet more injoy'd and love of Rest increas'd as Toil and Business increase and the vigor and eagerness of Youth abates But where through a corruption of Nature Sloth and Laziness is ingendred where it is contracted as a Habit that slackens and enervates the Mind and infeebles and as it were dissolves the Body it is not only ruinous of the body's Health and destructive in the end or by its consequences but the immediate feeling of it and the sensation it self becomes no other than a lingring drooping Pain and heavy Oppression it being impossible this way ever to feel as those who live naturally either the sprightly joy of vigorous and manly Exercise or the succeding Refreshment and the Pleasures of a natural and wholsom Rest after due Labor and Imployment So that in the room of the Pleasures of a double kind that are thus parted with there is nothing gain'd but a dull and heavy feeling more weighty and tiresom than any Labor whatsoever a sort of languishing Disease prejudicial to all other enjoyments of a vigorous and healthy Sense and injurious both to the Body and to the Mind in which latter it is the occasion of worse disturbance and of a more immediate spreading Corruption for however the Body may hold out it is impossible that the Mind in which the Distemper is seated can escape without an immediate Affliction and Disorder The Habit begets a tediousness and anxiety which infects the whole Temper and is the occasion of converting this unnatural Rest into an unhappy sort of activity such as that of vexatiousness ill humor and a preying
active Spleen And in the same manner as in the Body where no Labor or natural Exercise being us'd the Spirits that want their due imployment prey upon the Body and find work for themselves in a destructive way so in a Mind unexercis'd and which languishes and faints for want of due action the Passions which should have an equal and apt Imployment and be taken up in a settled Application to some sit work and business in Life being thus cut off from their course of action find work themselves and turning inwards raise disquiet in the Mind and an eagerness and irritation in the Temper which becomes loosen'd towards Passion is render'd more impotent more incapable of Moderation and like prepar'd fuel is made apt to take fire by the least spark Thus therefore by reason of the injuries that this Habit brings both to the Body and to the Mind and to the Pleasure and real Ease of both it is plain That to have this overgreat inclination towards Rest this slothful soft or effeminate Temper averse to Labor and Imployment is to have an unavoidable mischief and attendent plague AS to Interest how far it is here concern'd how wretched that state is which by this habit a man is placed in towards all the circumstances and affairs of Life when at any time he is call'd to action how subjected he must be to all inconveniences wanting to himself and depriv'd of the assistance of others whilst being unfit for all offices and duties of Society he yet of any other person most needs the help of Society as being least able to assist or support himself all this is obvious and need not to be explained THERE remains still one Passion more to speak of which yet we can scarcely call a self-passion since the sole end of it is the good and advantage of the Kind But whereas all other social or natural Affections are join'd only with a mental Pleasure and sounded in a Kindness and Love only this has more added to it and is join'd with a pleasure of Sense and a necessity in some degree of indulging the Appetite which is towards it for the ease and welfare of the Creature And tho the necessity be not absolute here as in the cases of eating drinking rest and sleep yet to abstain wholly from the use of VENERY which is that we are speaking of can hardly be without the sufferance of the Body in some degree nor can the prejudice to the Constitution be absolutely avoided without the assistance of Art and a method and rule of Living as is observable even in the Female Sex where notwithstanding the toil and sufferance of breeding and bearing the young the natural consequences are rather worse to the Constitution from being totally witheld and never serving to that use and design of Nature tho through so much Labor and Fatigue Such concern therefore and care has Nature shewn for the support and maintenance of the several Species that by an Indigence and a kind of Necessity which we are thus cast in it is made an immediate Self-interest to us with respect to our bodily state to work towards the propagation of our Kind The Passion therefore which carries us to this service and good to our Species is made as it were a Self-passion and is accompanied not only with an affection of kindness and love towards the Female but with a desire of self-ease and towards what is of use to the privat animal Nature and a satisfaction and indulgence of Sense NOW whether or no it be the interest and good of the Animal to have this indigence and need beyond a natural and ordinary degree and to have this Appetite towards Venery more eager impatient and more extended than of course it usually is in Nature where no additional incitement or provocation is used this is what we may consider HAVING said already so much concerning natural and unnatural Appetite above there needs less to be said in this place If it be allow'd that to all other Pleasures there is a measure of Appetite belonging which cannot be exceeded but with prejudice to the Creature even in his very capacity of enjoying Pleasure and if to have either a ravenous Appetite such as is a Disease and has a peculiar name or to have that other sort of exorbitant Appetite no less properly call'd a Disease which we see in the Luxurious be both of them unfortunate and of prejudice even to the very right enjoyment of the Pleasures deriv'd from those Senses it will hardly be thought that there is no limit bound or certain measure of this other Appetite towards Venery as if this were independent of Nature and might extend to Infinite and still be the occasion of greater and greater Pleasure which is too great an absurdity to go about to confute There are other sorts of ardent Sensations and eager Incitements of Flesh which we accidentally sometimes experience in our selves and which are acceptable perhaps whilst in a certain degree but which as they increase grow intolerable Even Laughter provok'd by Titillation grows an excessive pain tho it retains still in a great degree the same features of delight and pleasure And altho in the case of that particular kind of Itch which belongs to a Distemper that has its name from that effect there are some found so sensually inclin'd that they esteem the continual allaying of that Ardor however eager and fierce to be acceptable and delightful yet it would hardly be reputed so amongst the more refin'd sort even of those who make sensual Pleasure a study Now if there be a certain height a certain pitch or degree of the other Ardor which by being further advanc'd is so much less consistent with the pleasure of that Sensation and is rather a sort of rage and sury like that which is rais'd by certain poisonous Medicaments and Incentives to Lust and since there is a necessity of stopping somewhere and fixing some Boundary where can that possibly be done but where regard is had to Nature beyond which there is no measure or rule of things Now Nature may be known from that which we see of the natural state of Creatures and of Man when unprejudiced by unnatural provocation and youthful incitements of a vicious Education Where it happens that we see any one bred to a natural Life inured to honest industry and sobriety and unaccustom'd to any thing immoderate or intemperate it appears always that such a one as this when at full age has his desires and inclinations of this sort at command and no ways enflam'd till by force upon himself and by giving into debauch and excess he strains and widens his Appetite to a new and unnatural degree But if such excesses are never us'd the Desires contain themselves in their just limits But when we reflect upon what is customary to almost all the Youth of human kind especially of those who are above the laboring sort and at what