Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/387

 Rh and pointed at, with great Freedom and Authority, and not without some Success. And for this Reason, Diogenes sometimes made use of the Poet's Discipline. You are now to observe that Middle Comedy succeeded to the Old, and the New to the Middle ; This last kind sinking by degrees to the Buffoonry of the Mimi. 'Tis true, there are some useful Expressions to be met with even here; But then you are to consider the Tendency of the whole Poem, and what these Dramatick Diversions drive at in General.

VII. Nothing is clearer to me than that the Principles you go upon are as good a Foundation for Philosophy, and Improvement, as are to be met with, in any other Sect whatsoever.

VIII. A Bough by being lopp'd off from another, must of Necessity be lopp'd from the whole Tree: Thus a Man that breaks with another looses the Benefit of the whole Community. 'Tis true a Bough is lopp'd off by a Foreign Hand ; But this Moral Amputation is all Voluntary; 'Tis the Man that pulls himself asunder by his untoward Aversion to his Neighbour : He little thinks by this unhappy Division, how he Disincorporates himself from the Body of Mankind ! And here the Goodness of God who founded this Society is Rh