_... Insuevit Pater optimus hoc me, Ut fugerem exemplis vitiorum quæq; notando. Quum me hortaretur parce, frugaliter, atq; Viverem uti contentus ea, qtiod mi ipse parasset: Nonne vides Albi ut male vivat filius? utq; Barrusinops? Magnum documentum nepatriamrem Perdere quis vellit. A turpi Meretricis amore Quum deterreret, Sectani dissimilis sis._ _... Sic me Formabat puerum dictis...._ ... Thus my best father taught Me to flee Vice, by noting those were naught. When he would charge me, Thrive, & sparing be, Content with what he had prepar’d for me; Seest not how ill young _Albus_ lives? how low Poor _Barrus_? Sure, a weighty _Item_ how One spent his means. And when he meant to strike A hate to Whores, To _Sectan_ be not like. ... Thus me a childe He with his precepts fashion’d.... There is no better way to correct faults in our selves, than by observing how uncomely they appear in others. After a fit of drunkenness, my conscience would usually accuse me, & many times, after convictment, would pass so severe a sentence of condemnation on me, that my own hands have oftentimes been like to prove my Executioners. Considering within my self what should be the cause of this trouble and self-loathing, I found it proceeded from no other reason than the observation of others in the like beastly condition, & how noisom it hath rendred them to all. The first thing that made me abhor a Cholerick passion, and a fawcy pride in my self, (of which I was too guilty) was the seeing how ridiculous and contemptible they rendred those that are infested with them. Besides, those that are thorowly experienc’d in navigation, do as well know the coasts as the Ocean; as well the sands, the shallows, & the rocks, as the secured depth in the most dangerless channel: so I think those that would arrive to as much perfection as they are capable of enjoying here, must as well know bad, that they may abtrude or shun it; as the good, that they may embrace it. And this knowledge we can neither have so cheap, nor so certain, as by seeing it in others: for under a Crown you may buy the whole experience of a mans Life, (as of mine) which cost some thousands; though me no more hundreds than what I borrowed of the world, having of mine own nothing originally. If we could pass the world without meeting _Vice_, then the knowledge of Vertue onely were sufficient: but it is impossible to live, and not encounter her. Vice is as a god in this world: for as she ruleth almost incontrollably, so she assumes to her self ubiquity; we cannot go any where, but that she presents her self to the eye, _&c._ If any be unwittingly cast thereon, let him observe for his own more safe direction.