Page:Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times Vol 2.djvu/28

RV 24 (Rh) no-one would doubt to pronounce, if he saw a Man who minded not any Precipices which lay in his way, nor made any distinction of Food, Diet, Clothing, or whatever else related to his Health and Being. The same wou'd be aver'd of one who had a Disposition which render'd him averse to any Commerce with Womankind, and of consequence unfitted him thro' Illness of Temper (and not merely thro' a Defect of Constitution) for the propagation of his Species or Kind.

the Affection towards Self-good, may be a good Affection, or an ill-one. For if this private Affection be too strong (as when the excessive Love of Life unfits a Creature for any generous Act) then is it undoubtedly vitious, and if vitious the Creature who is mov'd by it, is vitiously mov'd, and can never be otherwise than vitious in some degree, when mov'd by that Affection. Therefore if thro' such an earnest and passionate Love of Life, a Creature be accidentally induc'd to do Good (as he might be upon the same terms induc'd to do ) he is no more a good Creature for this Good he executes, than a Man is the more an honest or good Man either for pleading a just Cause, or fighting in a good one, for the sake merely of his Fee or Stipend. Rh