BOOK the Second.




CHAP. I.

The inconsideration and instability of youth; when unrestrained by
authority, is here exemplified, in an odd adventure Natura embarked
in with two nuns, after the death of his governor.


Novelty has charms for persons of all ages, but more especially in
youth, when manhood is unripened by maturity, when all the passions
are afloat, and reason not sufficiently established in her throne by
experience and reflection, the mind is fluctuating, easily carried
down the stream of every different inclination that invites, and
seldom or never has a constant bent.

From seventeen or eighteen to one or two and twenty, I look upon to be
that season of life in which all the errors we commit, will admit of
most excuse, because we are then at an age to think ourselves men,
without the power of acting as becomes reasonable men. It was in the
midst of this dangerous time, that Natura set out in order to make the