Such at least is the Idea, which the Author of these Dialogues has formed to himself of the manner in which this exquisite sort of composition may be attempted by more successful writers. For to conceive an excellence, and to copy it, he understands and laments, are very different things.
Thurcaston.
MDCCLXIV.
MORAL AND POLITICAL
DIALOGUES.
DIALOGUE I.
ON SINCERITY IN THE COMMERCE
OF THE WORLD.
BETWEEN
DR. HENRY MORE,
AND
EDMUND WALLER, ESQ.
DIALOGUE I.
ON SINCERITY IN THE COMMERCE OF THE WORLD.
Dr. HENRY MORE, EDMUND WALLER, Esq.
MR. WALLER.
Enough, enough, my friend, on the good old chapter of Sincerity and Honour. Your rhetoric, and not your reasoning, is too much for me. Believe it, your fine stoical lessons must all give way to a little common sense, I mean, to a prudent accommodation of ourselves to times and circumstances; which, whether you will dignify it with the name of philosophy, or no, is the only method of living with credit in the world, and even with safety.
DR. MORE.
Accommodation is, no doubt, a good word to stand in the place of insincerity. But, pray, in which of the great moral masters have you picked up this term, and, much more, the virtuous practice, it so well expresses?