No. 23.
TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1750.
Tres mihi convivæ prope dissentire videntur;
Poscentur vario multum diversa palato.
Hor. lib. ii. Ep. ii. 61.
Three guests I have, dissenting at my feast,
Requiring each to gratify his taste
With different food.
Francis.
That every man should regulate his actions by his own conscience, without any regard to the opinions of the rest of the world, is one of the first precepts of moral prudence; justified not only by the suffrage of reason, which declares that none of the gifts of heaven are to lie useless, but by the voice likewise of experience, which will soon inform us that, if we make the praise or blame of others the rule of our conduct, we shall be distracted by a boundless variety of irreconcileable judgments, be held in perpetual suspense between contrary impulses, and consult for ever without determination.