Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/430

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

250
The Mythological Picture

is complaining Sorrow, and that Sister of his is Despair. To this Company the Rakes above-mention'd are sent, where they are maul’d and mortified sufficiently, and after they have gone through their Exercise in this Bridewell, they are committed to Goal, where Unhappiness is their Keeper: And here they are fast for their Life-time, unless they happen to light upon Repentance: If Fortune sends this Lady to any one of them, she disengages him from his Confinement, and gives him a new set of Notions, and Desires, which puts him in the Road to True Knowledge; However, the Direction is not so Infallible, but that ’tis possible for him to miss the way, and make a Visit to pretended Learning. And what follows? Why, says he, if he Travels right, and comes to the Seat of True Knowledge, she does his Business effectually: she purges his Head, and cures his Spleen, and makes him Easy, and Prosperous as long as he lives: But if he mistakes the Road, pretended Learning picks him up, and leads him a new Dance. O strange! said I, here’s another great Risque to be run: But I beg of you what sort of Mortal is this pretended Learning, Don't you see, replies my Instructer, that farther Court? Yes very plainly. And don't you perceive a Woman in the Porch genteelly dress’d and with

an