35. For my part I could never consider this preposterous repugnancy to
nature any otherwise, than not only as the greatest folly, but also one
of the most heinous crimes, since it is a direct opposition to the
disposition of providence, and (as _Tully_ expresses it) like the sin of
the giants, an actual rebellion against heaven.

SPECTATOR, Vol. VI. No. 404.




_Good Humour and Nature_.


1. A man advanced in years that thinks fit to look back upon his former
life, and calls that only life which was passed with satisfaction and
enjoyment, excluding all parts which were not pleasant to him, will find
himself very young, if not in his infancy. Sickness, ill-humour, and
idleness, will have robbed him of a great share of that space we
ordinarily call our life.

2. It is therefore the duty of every man that would be true to himself,
to obtain, if possible, a disposition to be pleased, and place himself
in a constant aptitude for the satisfaction of his being. Instead of
this, you hardly see a man who is not uneasy in proportion to his
advancement in the arts of life.

3. An affected delicacy is the common improvement we meet with in these
who pretend to be refined above others: they do not aim at true pleasure
themselves, but turn their thoughts upon observing the false pleasures