Argument of greater shallowness, unless it be to regard and esteem him for it. Wou’d a Woman, if she truly understood her self, be affected either with the praises or calumnies of those worthless Persons, whose Lives are a direct contradiction to Reason, a very sink of corruption, by whom one wou’d blush to be commended, lest they shou’d be mistaken for Partners in or Connivers at their Crimes? Will she who has a jot of discernment think to satisfy her greedy desire of Pleasure, with those promising nothings that have again and again deluded her? Or will she to obtain such Bubbles, run the risque of forfeiting Joys infinitely satisfying and eternal? In sum, did not ignorance impose on us, we would never lavish out the greatest part of our Time and Care, on the decoration of a Tenement, in which our Lease is so very short, and which for all our industry, may lose its Beauty e’er that Lease be out, and in the mean while neglect a more glorious and durable Mansion! We wou’d never be so curious of the House and so careless of the Inhabitant, whose beauty is capable of great improvement and will endure for ever without diminution or decay! Thus Ignorance and a narrow Education lay the Foundation of Vice, and Imitation and Custom rear it up. Custom, that merciless torrent that carries all before it, and which indeed can be stem’d by none but such as have a great deal of Prudence and a rooted Vertue. For ’tis but Decorous that she who is not capable of giving better Rules, shou’d follow those she sees before her, least she only change the instance and retain the absurdity. ’Twou’d puzzle a considerate Person to account for all that Sin and Folly that is in the World (which certainly has nothing in it self to recommend it) did not Custom help to solve the difficulty. For Vertue without question has on all accounts the preeminence of Vice, ’tis abundantly more pleasant in the _Act_, as well as more advantageous in the _Consequences_, as any one who will but rightly use her reason, in a serious reflection on her self and the nature of things, may easily perceive. ’Tis Custom therefore, that Tyrant Custom, which is the grand motive to all those irrational choices which we daily see made in the World, so very contrary to our _present_ interest and pleasure, as well as to our Future. We think it an unpardonable mistake not to do as our neighbours do, and part with our Peace and Pleasure as well as our Innocence and Vertue, meerly in complyance with an unreasonable Fashion. And having inur’d our selves to Folly, we know not how to quit it; we go on in Vice, not because we find satisfaction in it, but because we are unacquainted with the Joys of Vertue.