XVII. All that a person can reasonably desire, may be attained without deviating from the path of honour. A man of a clear head, accompanied with perspicuity and prudence, will always find a way to arrive at the goal of his pretensions, without inclining the line of rectitude and honesty, towards the curve of deceit. Fidelity in friendship, and sincerity in behaviour, are so far from being prejudicial, that they afford great assistance; because with these endowments, he will gain the confidence and good-will of such as can lend their hand to raise him, and of those, who may be useful as instruments in helping him forward. By being disinterested and a lover of justice, he will acquire the esteem and affection of many, and the veneration of all men. To be open-hearted, and to communicate with confidence in all matters, except such as prudence dictates to you to conceal, or else, such as are confided to you under the seal of secrecy, by those with whom you have friendly intercourse, have a most powerful attraction. And although this behaviour may sometimes occasion disgust, to here and there a person of a different cast of mind; that disadvantage would be doubly compensated for, by the good opinion, that person would entertain of such a one when he is persuaded, that he is a man of sincerity; for the disgust would pass away, and the good opinion would remain. In fact, these transparent souls, when discretion is combin’d with the purity of their dispositions, are those, who ascend to the greatest height with the least fatigue. The theatre of nature in this particular, is an emblem of the theatre of fortune. The diaphonous and brilliant bodies, are those which occupy the most elevated stations in the fabric of the globe; the gloomy, opake, and obscure ones, the lowest.