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 Zeal every Man maintain'd that Opinion which he embrac'd thro' Ignorance, Prejudice, or Interest, without daring to examine his Principles by an infallible Rule, lest he shou'd see any Reason for renouncing that Error he was so fond of, if it shou'd prove one. I gave him also an Account of their proceedings against a King, that thro' Faction and private Interest was put to Death, yet might have sav'd his Life and his Crown if he wou'd consent with wicked Ministers to oppress his People. Here Tckbrff express'd the greatest Indignation and Horror mix'd with a Degree of Pity for the unthinking Contrivers of his Death; and ask'd me how I could preserve my human Shape among such a corrupted Multitude. I told him that we carried on our most wicked Practices, and encourag'd the vilest Passions with the greatest shew of Humanity, and beg'd of him to let me know if he could, how it came to pass that his Countrymen, were so unhappy as to have their Thoughts prefigur'd in their Bodies; or why such Metamorphoses did not make them Honest? He reply'd, that the Reason why those Transformations did not make them Honest, was owing to the Ignorance of their Deformity; for every Man judg'd favourably of himself by a Misconstruction of his Actions, and it was observable, that no Person who had any part of a Beast in his composition, cou'd with a slight View behold his own Defects, tho' he often saw more brutal Members in others than they really had, which proceeded from a Desire they had that it shou'd be so; for they mistaking Virtue for a relative Thing, imagin'd every Man to be Virtuous, than whom they cou'd find one more Brutal; never considering, that he, who wou'd deserve the Character of a good Man, must observe to the utmost of his Power, an exact Conformity of every of his Actions to right Reason. As to the Changes which our Bodies are subject to, (continued he) the best Account which I find in Writings or Tradition is this; that our Fore-Fathers in the early Ages of the Moon, before