Again, we shou’d endeavour to render Spiritual and Future things as Present and Familiar as may be, and to withdraw as much as we can from sensible Impressions, especially from such as attack us violently. She whose Mind is busied about the former will find ’em of Weight and Moment sufficient to employ all her Passions, whilst the other will be scarce taken notice of; or be look’d on with Indifferency, because they appear to deserve very little Admiration, Joy, or Sorrow, and are not of value enough to discompose the Mind. And tho we have not Ambition to aspire to St. _Paul_’s Perfection, who was _Crucified to the World and the World to him_, a greater Character than that of _Universal Monarch_; tho we think it impossible to be wholly Insensible to it whilst we live in it: Yet sure we can’t deny that it is Possible, and very much our Duty, to be more indifferent to the Objects of Sense than the most of us are. For we certainly do amiss if we fix our Eyes and Thoughts so constantly on ’em, as that at last we take them for the most considerable things, and imagine that our Happiness is here; or, tho we can’t be so gross as to _believe_ this, yet if we _act_ as if we did; It wou’d become us much better to argue, that the Possession of these Worldly Advantages which Mankind so much contend for, is Good if it can procure us Eternal Felicity; and that the Want of ’em is an Evil, if it exclude us from the Kingdom of Heav’n. By which we learn how necessary it is to Retire and Meditate frequently; and how much it becomes us to keep out of the way of Theatrical Shows and inordinate Merriments, and not so much as to enter into a Parley with those Pomps and Vanities we renounc’d in our Baptism. For tho some extraordinary Tempers may make use of these to stir up the Powers of their Soul, and to give them a greater aversion to Vanity, as some Poysons are said to be Antidotes against others, yet for the most part they have an ill Effect: Because they deprive the Soul of real Joy and divine Serenity, by making too strong an Impression on the Senses, whereby the Animal Spirits are very much Mov’d and Exhausted, and being spent on trifles the Mind is left Dull, Unactive, and Melancholy too, especially if it Reflect on its Actions as it ought; so natural and necessary is it, that Vain Mirth shou’d conclude in Heaviness. [Sidenote: _Les Passions de l’Ame._]