purifying of their Thoughts, than all the rigid Precepts of the Stoical, or the empty Distinctions of the Peripatetic Moralists.
Now then it is requir'd in that Study, which shall attempt, according to the force of Nature, to cure the Diseases of the Mind, that it keep it from Idleness, by full and earnest Employments; and that it possess it with innocent, various, lasting, and even sensible Delights.
How active and industrious the Art of Experiments ought to be, may be concluded from the whole tenour of my Discourse: wherein I have often prov'd, that it can never be finish'd by the perpetual Labours of any one Man, nay scarce by the successive force of the greatest Assembly.
That therefore being taken for granted, that it will afford eternal Employments: It is also as true, that it's Labours will contain the most affecting, and the most diverting Delights: And that thence it has Power enough to free the Minds of Men from their Vanities and Intemperance, by that very way which the greatest Epicure has no reason to reject, by opposing Pleasure against Pleasure.
And I dare challange all the corrupt Arts of our Senses, or the Devices of voluptuous Wits, to provide fuller, more changable, or nearer Objects, for the Contentment of Mens Minds. It were indeed to be wish'd, that severe Virtue itself, attended only by its own Authority, were powerful enough to establish its Dominion. But it cannot be so. The Corruptions, and Infirmities of Human Nature stand in need of all manner of Allurements, to draw us to Good, and quiet Manners. I will therefore propose for this End this Course of Study, which will not affright us
