Give no quarter unto those Vices which are of thine inward Family; and having a Root in thy Temper, plead a Right and Property in thee. Examine well thy complexional Inclinations. Raise early Batteries against those strong Holds built upon the Rock of Nature, and make this a great Part of the Militia of thy Life. The politick Nature of Vice must be oppos'd by Policy, and therefore wiser Honesties project and plot against Sin; wherein notwithstanding we are not to rest in Generals, or the trite Stratagems of Art: that may succeed with one Temper which may prove successless with another. There is no Community or Common-wealth of Virtue; every Man must study his own Oeconomy, and erect these Rules unto the Figure of himself.
Lastly, If Length of Days be thy Portion, make it not thy Expectation: Reckon not upon long Life, but live always beyond thy Account. He that so often surviveth his Expectation, lives many Lives, and will hardly complain of the Shortness of his Days. Time past is gone like a Shadow; make Times to come present; conceive that near which may be far off; approximate thy last Times by present Apprehensions of them: Live like a Neighbour unto Death, and think there is but little to come. And since there is something in us that must still live on, join both Lives together; unite them in thy Thoughts and Actions, and live in one but for the other. He who thus ordereth the Purposes of this Life, will never be far from the next, and is in some manner already in it, by an happy Conformity, and close Apprehension of it.
FINIS
Footnotes
[283] Cum mors venerit, in medio Tibure Sardinia est.
[284] In the King's Forests they set the Figure of a broad Arrow upon Trees that are to be cut down. Hippoc. Epidem.
[285] Bellonius de Avibus.
[286] Monstra contingunt in Medicina Hippoc.
[287] Strange and rare Escapes there happen sometimes in Physick. Angeli Victorii Consultationes. Matth. iv. 25.
[288] Aristoteles nullum animal nisi æstu recedente expirare affirmat: observatum id multum in Gallico Oceano et duntaxat in Homine comertum, lib. 2. cap. 101.