I am diseased after a full meal ; the
perfumes I smelt yesterday now no
more affect me with any pleasure : but
the good turn I did yesterday, a year,
seven years since, continues still to
S lease and delight me as often as I re
ect on it. 5th. The expectation of
eternal and incomprehensible happiness
in another world is that also which
carries a constant pleasure with it. If
then I will faithfully pnrsne that hap
piness I propose to myself, whatever
pleasure oilers itself to me, I must
carefully look that it cross not any of
those five great and constant pleasures
above mentioned. For example, the
fruit I see tempts me with the taste of
it that I love, but if it endanger my
health, I part with a constant and last
ing for a very short and transient plea
sure, and so foolishly make myself un
happy, and am not true to my own in
terest. Hunting, plays, and other in
nocent diversions delight me; if I
make use of them to refresh myself
after study and business, they preserve
my health, restore the vigor of my
mind, and increase my pleasure ; but if
I spend all, or the greatest part of my
time in them, they hinder my improve
ment in knowledge and useful arts,
they blast my credit, and give me np
to the uneasy state of shame, igno
rance, and contempt, in which I cannot
but be very nnbappy. Drinking, gam
ing, and vicious delights will do me
this mischief not only by wasting my
time, bnt by a positive efficacy endan
ger my health, impair my parts, im
print ill habits, lessen my esteem,
and leave a constant lasting torment
on my conscience. Therefore all vi
cious and unlawful pleasures I will al
ways avoid, because such a mastery ot
my passions will afford me a constant
pleasure greater than any such enjoy
ments: and also deliver me from the
certain evil of several kinds, that by
indulging myself in a present tempta
tion 1 shall certainly afterward suffer.
