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[vi]

illustrious Statesman cannot fail of being restored to that general estimation which they have long merited; and I humbly thank your Royal Highness for the condescending and flattering manner, in which you were pleased to send me permission to employ this sanction. I have the honour to remain, MADAM,

With sincere and dutiful respect,
YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS'S

Most obedient

And most devoted servant,

JAMES STANIER CLARKE,

Carlton-House Library,
May 22, 1814.

ESSAYS

MORAL AND ENTERTAINING.

OF HUMAN NATURE.

Montpellier, 1668.

TH HE perpetual fear and agony and apprehension, which wicked men always feel within themselves, is the argument that Epicurus made, that human nature is so far from being inclined to ill, that it abhors all kind of wickedness; quia infixa nobis ejus rei aversatio est, quam natura damnavit, ideo nunquam fides latendi fit etiam latentibus; and the frequent discoveries of very enormous crimes after long concealments, merely from the unquietness of the offenders' own breasts, manifests how far our nature is from being delighted with works of darkness, that it cannot rest till they be exposed to light. If we did not take great pains, and were not at great expence to corrupt our nature, our

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nature would never corrupt us: We administer all the helps of industry and art to provoke our appetites, and to inflame our blood, and then we accuse nature for leading us into excesses; we kindle that fire that kindles our lust with a licentious diet, and then fan it into a flame with obscene discourses, and revile nature that it will not permit us to be chaste; we provoke and cherish our anger with unchristian principles of revenge, and then inveigh against nature for making us choleric: when, God knows, the little good we have in us, we owe only to the integrity of our nature; which hath restrained us from many vices which our passions would hurry us into. Very many men have remained or become temperate, by the very nauseating and aversion that nature hath to surfeits and excesses; and others have been restrained from making wicked attempts, by the horror and trembling that nature hath suggested to them in the approach. Many excellent men have grown to rare perfections in knowledge and in practice, to great learning, great wisdom, great virtue, without ever having felt the least repugnance in their nature to interrupt them in their progress; on the contrary their inclinations have been strengthened, their vivacity increased, from the very impulsion of their nature: but we may reasonably believe, that never man made a great

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