Page:Curious history on several occasions.pdf/14

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of lodging Carnal-Love and Modeſty under the ſame roof.

Jupiter forgetting Modeſty in the compoſition of man, intimates to us, the difficulty of admitting it till fleſh and blood are ſatiate; for there is hardly any place for counſel, till theſe beats are in ſome meaſure taken off. And it is no wonder, that when love comes to be without reaſon, it ſhould be without modeſty too for when it is once paſt government, it is conſequently paſt ſhame. When our corruptions, in fine are ſtrong, and our underſtanding weak, we are more apt to hearken to the motions of the blood, and to the vain imaginations of a depraved affection, than to the dry doctrines and precepts of authority and virtue.

Gentlemen, This difficulty of keeping young and hot blond in order does mightily enforce the necesſity of an early care for the training up of youth, and giving them a tincture, before it be too late, of thoſe doctrines and principles, by which they are afterwards to govern the whole frame of their lives for in their tender years they are more ſuſceptible of profitable and virtuous impreſſions, then afterwards, when they come to be ſolicited by the impulſe of common and vulgar inclinations. They ſhould, in truth, be kept at a diſtance from either ſeeing or hearing ill examples: eſpecially in an age that is governed more by precedent than by reaſon.

Solomon, the royal eaſtern ſage, ſays, a whore is a deep ditch: he compares her alſo to a pit or trap, and moſt pathetically adviſes to ſhun the doors of her houſe for, ſays he, her gates lead down to death, and her ſteps take hold on hell. And towards the end of a life ſpent in all manner of voluptuouſneſs and carnal pleaſure, when the fountains of youth and health, that ſupplied the ſtream of pleaſure were dried up; then and not till then, he cried out, that it was all vanity and vexation of ſpirit.

A well frequented ſtew oft puts me in mind of the college office houſe, where rank filth, in an indecent manner, is perpetually poured out; however I hear there is a new and elegant houſe of office building, where