part XIII.

ET I C U RU S:
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• For my own part, truly (that I may with mo delly inftance my felf) i am content, and highly pleas’d with the Plants , and Fruits of hiy own little Gardens • and will, that this Infcription be let over the Gate, Stranger^ here you may flay •, here the Supreme Good is Pleafure • the Mafler ofdns little houfe is hofpitable^ friendly^ and will entertain you with polenta, and afford you water plentifully^ and will ask you^ Howyou like your en¬ tertainment ? Thefe little Gardens invite not hun¬ ger^ but fatisfie it ; nwr encreafe tbirfl with drinks, but extinguijh ft with the natural and pie af ant re¬ medy.
In this pleafure I have grown old, finding by account, that my diet amounts not fully to an ebolus a day, and yet fome days there are, in which I abate fomwhat even of that, to make trial, whether I want any thihg of full and per- fedf pleafure, or how much, and whether it be worth great labour.
CHAP. XIV.
Of Continence f oppofite to Lufl.
Moreover, Continenc.e or Abftinence from Venereal Plearfures is a great Virtue •, for the ufe of them, as I faid formerly, doth never benafit, and it is well if it hurts not.
Certainly,to abufe them intemperately, is to make a man deftituce of vigor, anxious with cares, painful with difeafes, and of Ihort con¬ tinuance. Wherefore a wife man mull Hand upon his guardj and not fuffer himfelf to be caught with love, far from conceiving love to be Ibmthing fent from the Gods above, and therefore to be cherilhed.
And that a man may be leafl: fubjeft thereto and want the chief excitements to venereal de¬ lights, nothing more avils than fpare diet, of which we lately treated .• for excefs in eating, caufeth abundance of that humor, vvhich is the food and fuel of love’s fire. The next antidotes are, an Honeft cmployment,( efpecially the ftu- dy of wifdom,) and meditation upon the incon¬ veniences to which they’ who fuffer themfelvcs to be tranfported with love, are liable.
The general incoveniences "which attend love of Women and Boys, are confumption of ftrength, decay of induftry, ruin of eftatc, mortgages aud forfeitures, lofs of reputation. And while the feet wear buskins, the
fingers Emeralds, the body other ornaments, the mind, in the mean time, confeiou? to it felf, is full of remorfe, for that Ihe lives idly, and fuffers good years to be loft, and thelike,which it were eafie to inftance.
But as to Particulars, What ill doth it not .draw upon a Man to defire the company of a Woman prohibited to him by theLaws? Doubt- lefs, a wife Man will be very far from thinking of fuch a thing it being enough to deter him from it, to refieA upon the vaft folicitude, which is neceffary to precaution, of thofe many and great dangers which intervene ^ it hapning, for the moft part, that they who attempt fuch things are wounded, raurthered, iraprifon’d, banifh’d, or fuffer fome great punilhments. Whence it comes, that ( as we faid before ) for a pleafure,
which is but fhorc, liccle, and not necejrary,and vvhich might either have, been obtained other- wife, or quite let alone, men expole themfelves to great pain, and fad repentance.
Befidcs, to be incontinent, to refign up our lelvcs to this one kind of pleafure, were to de- traud our lelves in the mean time of other plea- lures, many and great j which he enjoys, who lives, continently according to the Laws. Hefo applies himiclt to wifdom, as that he neither blunts his mind, nor excrutiats it with cares nor dilturbs it with other affeftions •, and for his body, he neither enervates it, norvexeth it with difeafes, nor torments it with pains. And thus he attains the chief good,which (as I faid ) is not gotten by keeping company with Boys or Women, not having a Table pienteoully lurnifhed with choice of Filh or Fowl.
Yet there is no reafon, any one, from this ' commendation of general -^bitinence from vene¬ real delighLS,(hould infer, that .therefore a man ought to abitain even from lawful maefiage^ What our judgment is of that Partkuiar, we have formerly declared. 1 fiiall only add, that whereas i laid, Love is not fent from thegods, it gives us to underftand, that if a man hath no Children by his wife, -he-muft not attribute to the anger ot Cupid or Eenus, or hope to be¬ come a Father by Vows, prayers, and- Sacrifices', rather than by natural Remedies.
1 lhail add, that a wife man ought not to live after the manner of the Cynicks.^ or to behave himfelf with fuch immodelfy as they IheW in publick* For whilft they plead they tollow Na- ture,and reprehend-and deride us,for efteetning it obfeene and difhoneft to call things vvhiclr are not dilhoneft by their names, but things which are indeed dilhonelt we c.ill by their proper^ Names ^ as to rob, to cozen, to commit-adulte¬ ry, are difhoneft indeed, but not obEceue in name whereas to perform the ad of -genera- ‘ tion,is honeft in deed,but obfccne in name, and alledge divers other arguments againft mode- fty : they feem not fufficiently to confider, rhac they live in a civil Society, not in the Fie!ds,like ^ wild Beaft, and therefore ought not tb follow Nature exadly. •' , - ■ -
For, from the time chat wc enroll’d out names in a Society, Nature commands,cChat we obferve the Laws and Cuftoms of that' 'Society 5, to the end, that participating of thecommon goods, we draw no evil' uporv our felvcs ,• fuch as is ( befides all other punilhments, ) the Very in¬ famy or ignominy which attends Impudeace,- or the want of fuch Modefty as is preferibed by the cuftoms- and manners of the Society wherein we live, and from which, in the Voice, the Countenance, and Behaviour, that modeft Refped, which is defervedly commneded by all, is denominated.
Laftly, 1 add, that it not- a little eonduceth - as to Modefty in particular, fo to all kinds of ContinenGy,to abftain from Mufick arid Poetry, for that their pleafmg Songs and Airs are no other than Incentives to Luft.
Fience is our Maxim, That a wife Man only can treat of Mufick and Poetry aright, and ac¬ cording to virtue. For others, cafily taken with the allurements of both, indulge to both 5 only the wife Man duely forefeeing the harm that K k k k would
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EPICURUS.