Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/399

 Rh should be the only Deserter, and grow Mutinous about her Station? Especially when her Orders agree with her Constitution, and nothing that's unnatural is enjoyn'd? And yet she won't bear the Conduct of her own Faculties, but runs perfectly Counter to Humanity. For when a Man turns Knave, or Libertine, when he gives way to Fears and Fits of the Spleen, he does as it were run away from himself, and Desert his own Nature : And farther, when his Mind complains of his Fortune, he quits the Station in which Providence has placed him. For Acquiescence, and Piety are no less his Duty, and his Talent too, than Honesty between Man and Man : For these Virtues carry up to the common Interest, and are rather of greater Antiquity, and Value, than Fair Dealing it self.

XXI. He that docs not always drive at the same End, will never be Uniform, and of a peice in his Conduct. But this Hint is too short, unless you describe the Quality of this Design, and what it is that we ought principally to Aim at. Now as People don't agree in the Preferences of Choice, and the Notion of Advantage, unless in what relates to the Common Good, so a Man ought to propose the Benefit of Society and the general Interest of the World, Rh