PERSONS lightly dipt, not grain'd in generous Honesty, are but pale in Goodness, and faint hued in Integrity.
But be thou what thou vertuously art, and let not the Ocean wash away thy Tincture. Stand magnetically upon that Axis, when prudent simplicity hath fixt there; and let no attraction invert the Poles of thy Honesty. That Vice may be uneasy & even monstrous unto thee, let iterated good Acts & long confirmed habits make Virtue almost natural, or a second nature in thee. Since virtuous superstructions have commonly generous foundations, dive into thy inclinations, & early discover what nature bids thee to be, or tells thee thou may'st be. They who thus timely descend into themselves, and cultivate the good seeds which nature hath set in them, prove not shrubs but Cedars in their generation. And to be in the form of the best of the Bad, or the worst of the Good, will be no satisfaction unto them.
["where prudent simplicity hath fixt thee": in the text of Letter to a Friend. ]
Optimi malorum pessimi bonorum.
