spare, if you reckon whats thrown away on fantastic Impertinencies, and ’tis this I wou’d have better employ’d: Were not a Morning more advantageously spent at a Book than at a Looking-Glass, and an Evening in Meditation than in Gaming? Were not Pertinent and Ingenious Discourse more becoming in a visit, than Idle twattle and uncharitable Remarks? than a Nauseous repetition of a set of fine words which no body believes or cares for? And is not the fitting our selves to do Real Services to our Neighbours, a better expression of our Civility than the formal performance of a thousand ridiculous Ceremonies, which every one condemns and yet none has the Courage to break thro? CHAP. IV. _Concerning the Regulation of the Will and the Government of the Passions._ As the Capacity which we find in our selves of Receiving and Comparing Ideas is what we call the Understanding, so the Power of Preferring any Thought or Motion, of Directing them to This or That thing rather than to another is what we mean by the Will: Whose Regularity consists in a constant Tendency towards such things as ought to be Prefer’d, or in a word, in Conformity to the Will of GOD. That GOD’s Will is the Rule of ours is methinks so plain that it needs no proof; for why do we Prefer a thing but because we Judge it Best? and why do we Chuse it but because it Seems Good for us? Now GOD being Infinitely Wise all his Judgments must be Infallible, and being Infinitely Good he can Will nothing but what is best, nor prescribe any thing that is not for our Advantage. This is I dare say what every one Thinks if they think at all about the matter and is the Rule they wou’d Act by did they give themselves leave upon all occasions duly to Consider and Weigh what is propos’d to them. But as there are some Ideas which our Understandings receive so early that they seem to be born with us, which are never totally absent from our minds, and are in a manner the source of all the rest; so there are certain Motions or Inclinations inseparable from the Will, which push us on to the use of that Power, and determine it to the Choice of such things as are most agreeable to them. Nor shou’d we do amiss in following these Inclinations did they keep that Impression which the Author of Nature gave them, which is towards Good in general, or towards himself, for he only is our True Good, and these are the Wings of the Soul which shou’d carry it on vigorously towards him.