To help us to the Knowledge of our own Capacities the Informations of our Friends, nay even of our Enemies may be useful. The former if Wise and True will direct us to the same Course to which our Genius Points, and the latter will industriously endeavour to divert us from it, and we can’t be too careful that these don’t disguise themselves under the specious appearance of the former, to do us an ill-turn the more effectually. For it is not seldom seen that such as pretend great Concern for us, will press us on to such Studies or Ways of Living as inwardly they know we are unfit for, thereby to gratify their Secret Envy, by diverting us from that to which our Genius disposes, and in which therefore they have reason to suppose we wou’d be Excellent. But tho we may make use of the Opinions of both, yet if we will be Sincere and Ingenuous we cannot have a more faithful Director than our own heart. He who gave us these Dispositions will excite us to the Use and Improvement of ’em; and unless we drive him from us by our Impurity, or thro negligence and want of Attention let slip his secret Whispers, this Master within us will lay most in our view such Lessons as he wou’d have us take. Our care then must be to open our Eyes to that Beam of Light which does in a more especial manner break in upon us, to fix them steadily, and to examine accurately those notices which are most vividly represented to us, and to lay out our Thoughts and Time in the Cultivation of ’em. It may be our Humor won’t be gratified, nor our Interest serv’d by such a Method. Other Business or Amusements put on a finer Garb, and come attended with more Charms and Grandeur, these recommend us to the World make us Belov’d and Illustrious in it: Whilst the followers of Truth are despis’d and look’d askew on, as fantastick Speculatists, unsociable Thinkers, who pretend to see farther than their Neighbours, to rectifie what Custom has establish’d, and are so Unmannerly as to Think and Talk out of the Common way. He who speaks Truth makes a Satyr on the greatest part of Mankind, and they are not over apt to forgive him, he contradicts the vogue of the Times, is so hardy as to lay open Mens darling Errors, to draw a lively Picture of their most secret Corruptions, a Representation which they cannot bear. Their Gall is touch’d proportionably as their Wounds are more deeply search’d into, altho it be only in order to a Cure. They therefore who Love Truth shall be Hated by the Most, who tho they openly pretend to Honour, yet secretly Malign her, because she reproaches them. And as a plausible Life is not often a very Religious one, which made the best Judge pronounce a Wo on those whom all Men shall speak well of, so neither is the most Just and Illuminated Understanding the most admir’d and trusted to, but a plausible Speaker, as well as a plausible Liver, commonly bears away the Bell. If then we consult our Passions and Vanity we shall go near to determine amiss, and make that use of