XXII. But for all these may appear an heterogeneous or monstrous compound of virtue and vice, there is nothing belonging to them, which may not be supposed conformable to nature. Virtues and vices have the same root or origin, that is, the temperament or constitutions of mankind. Thus as there is no soil so inhospitable as to produce nothing but poisonous plants, neither is there any disposition so vitiated as to nourish nothing but perverse inclinations. In no individual is nature such an enemy to reason, as to oppose it in every thing. This man is urged by gluttony, but not incited by incontinence. Another burns with impatience to be rich, and knows no other happiness than that of possessing vast treasure. A third is swayed by pride and vain-glory; and provided he receives the homage he expects, no other passion disturbs him. XXIII. To this we may add, that vice being very ugly and deformed, every one abhors those vices, that do not correspond, or fall in with his own inclinations, and is consequently led to admire those virtues with which they are contrasted. From hence it is common for men to be reciprocally offended and scandalized with the actions of each other. We see the faults of others in their proper shape and colours, and our own in the delusive form in which our appetites represent them to us. In the first we view the horrible, in the second the delectable. The picture which passion draws of vice, resembles that which was painted by Apelles of Antigonus. That monarch had but one eye, and the ingenious painter, to hide the blemish, drew him in profile, and exhibited only that part of his face in which there was no defect. Thus passion exposes to our view the flattering side only of our own vices; and conceals the deformed, but takes a quite opposite method in inspecting those of other people. XXIV. I contemplate sometimes, but not without emotions of laughter, how the covetous man appears disgusted with, and to nauseate the incontinent one; and how the incontinent man, looks with horror and abomination on the avaricious one. All this happens, by the first not being stimulated by carnal desires; and the second not being diseased with the dropsical thirst of gold. Every man has his strong and his weak side, or may be said to be made of brass in one part, and glass in another; but every man, by excusing himself on the pretext of hiss own fragility, is not aware, that all others have the same right to disculpate themselves in the same manner; and if we were to make the proper reflection on this matter, we should not be such severe critics on the actions of our neighbours. Envy would be converted to compassion, and that which at present inflames hatred, would beget charity.