The Whole Of Natural Theologyresolves Itself Into

Among Well Bred People A Mutual Deference Is Affected, Contempt For Others Is Disguised; Authority Concealed; Attention Given To Each In His Turn; And An Easy Stream Of Conversation Maintained Without Vehemence, Without Interruption, Without Eagerness For Victory, And Without Any Airs Of Superiority.

Vanity Is So Closely Allied To Virtue, And To Love The Fame Of Laudable Actions Approaches So Near The Love Of Laudable Actions For Their Own Sake, That These Passions Are More Capable Of Mixture Than Any Other Kinds Of Affection; And It Is Almost Impossible To Have The Latter Without Some Degree Of The Former.

If We Confine Ourselves To A General And Distant Reflection On The Ills Of Human Life, That Can Have No Effect To Prepare Us For Them. If By Close And Intense Meditation We Render Them Present And Intimate To Us, That Is The True Secret For Poisoning All Our Pleasures, And Rendering Us Perpetually Miserable.

What Peculiar Privilege Has This Little Agitation Of The Brain Which We Call Thought, That We Must Thus Make It The Model Of The Whole Universe? Our Partiality In Our Own Favour Does Indeed Present It On All Occasions; But Sound Philosophy Ought Carefully To Guard Against So Natural An Illusion.

There Is A Set Of Harmless Liars, Frequently To Be Met With In Company, Who Deal Much In The Marvellous. Their Usual Intention Is To Please And Entertain; But As Men Are Most Delighted With What They Conceive To Be The Truth, These People Mistake The Means Of Pleasing, And Incur Universal Blame.