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To bring it down to the Case in hand. Virtue and Modesty were Things our Ancestors had to value themselves upon in a particular manner; and indeed they had a great Share of them, such as they might justly value themselves upon. Now we may boast, I hope, of Virtue and Honesty, in Quantity, as much as they, and, I believe, we do talk as loudly of it as ever they did; but whether our Virtue and our Honesty are of as fine a Standard or not, I dare not enter upon a nice enquiry into that Part, for sundry good Reasons, not so fit perhaps to mention, as we might wish they were.
Sometimes I am afraid there is a baser Alloy among us, and that the Species is a little altered (in these Ages of Mirth and good Feeding); I won't venture to say it is not so. But even in the Particular before me, I have been told, our Forefathers were stricter in their adhering to the Laws of Nature than we think our selves obliged to be; that they abhorred the Pollutions that I complain of, and that they left us their Posterity, much a sounder and healthier Generation for that very thing, perhaps, than we may leave those that are to come after us.
It is a very unhappy Case, that these Practices should affect Posterity so much as they say they do, because whether we consider it so much as we might do or not, I cannot doubt but our Children will be touch'd in their Health and Constitution a little, if it be but a little, by the corrupt Practices of this lewd Age. What we bring upon our selves is nothing but to our selves, and we might be apt to say, we alone should suffer for it, and it were well if it were no otherwise.
But
