XI. If he seeks relief from lasciviousness, he will find, that no vice loads a man with so much uneasiness; and provided the meanness of his disposition, or the depravity of his appetite, determine him to pursue criminal pleasures, in the instant are set before his eyes the injuries it will be productive of, to the three articles, that are esteemed the most valuable in this life, honour, wealth, and property. He goes from pitcher to pitcher, to satisfy his thirst, till meeting with some infectious water, he poisons his whole mass of blood, by which means, his life is either endangered, or he is obliged to purchase the preservation of it at a dear rate, and although he recovers his health, he will suffer in his reputation through life. XII. If, from the ampleness of his fortune, or the merit of his person, his pursuits are directed to objects in a higher sphere, he will avoid part of the inconveniences before enumerated, to incur greater, which is shunning Scylla, and running upon Charybdis. Adventures of this kind, are full of alarms, inquietudes, and dangers. What anxieties await him pending the love-suit! His eyes seek sleep, but find it not; for Jacob, who was an honourable lover, experienced, and declared, that it was become a fugitive from his eyes. His heart longs for repose, but does not obtain it. In this manner he goes on, conceiving unhappiness, that he may bring forth misfortune. He is constantly wavering in his determination, about what means he shall employ to accomplish his end; he approves all that occur to him, and he rejects them all: _incertæ tanta est discordia mentis_. He trembles to think of the possibility of a repulse. Love drags him forward, fear detains him. He finds the whole road of his courtship strewed with perils, which upon his arrival at the summit of his wishes, will be multiplied, the hazardous instances in such cases, being many; but it seldom happens, that the injury is confined to a single person, and it is next to a moral impossibility, that a man should take so many steps without making a little noise, by which means, suspicion will be awakened, and watching in the end, be rewarded with the discovery of truth; and although the purpose is accomplished, a man who commits insults, and does injuries, is never free from alarms. What real pleasure is a man capable of feeling, who cannot separate the gratification of his lewd desires, from the hazard that attends them? He cannot move a step in prosecution of the crime, but the injured person, presents himself to his imagination, with a dagger, or a pistol in his hand; and this danger is constantly pursuing him, whichever way he turns himself; so that he is precisely in the case of that man, who is in continual dread of losing his life, and always sees it hang suspended by a single thread before his eyes, which is a state, that God represents to his people as a terrible curse: _Et erit vita tua quasi pendens ante te. Timebis nocte, & die, & non credes vitæ tuæ._