For are then all Diversions alike? And can there be none without such
follies, as no Man in his sense wou'd endure? Must all easie
Conversation be lost, unless Men have leave to be loose and profane?
And can there be no coming together of Strangers or Friends, but some
naked Vice must dance and be praised, or some Virtue made a Sacrifice
of, to fill up the Feast?

There may very well be, and no doubt but there is, in most
Conversation, a great deal of that which shou'd never be there; and
this is what one cannot wholly avoid without leaving the World. But
can this be reason why we must let People make to themselves new and
needless Occasions of Vanity, and lay dangerous snares in the way of
unwary People? I shou'd rather think the Argument lay; that since
there were so many faults, in all parts of the World and divertion of
life, Men shou'd not look out for more of this Trash to offend their
Company with, and foment the Disease, but get clear away from all the
Infection they cou'd, and lay in a Stock of such agreeable and wholsom
provisions, as might enable them to treat others with Safety and Ease,
and sometimes to correct the ill humours they found.

But then they must not go to such _Books_ and prescriptions for these,
as are full of the leaven they shou'd put out from amongst them, and
can serve for nothing else but to poyson their Food: To converse with
Impiety here, is to give it all the advantage they can, it is to
surrender the Mind entirely up to whatever assaults it, without being
able to save so much as a stragling thought. For they whose _Closets_
are fill'd with nothing but these, do not even pretend to resist the
force they call in, and a good Book standing idly by, will be little
security, against the strong Delusions of those they read with
concent: And therefore they who wou'd have their own virtue preserved,