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examples he is encouraged to vicious pursuits ; the first pre- 

 cept of prudence is therefore to avoid such company. 



The pursuit of illicit connexions with the opposite sex 

 leads to the commission of various crimes, the basest deceit, 

 seduction of the innocent, the affectation of love, where the 

 most cruel injury is premeditately intended ; its gratification 

 transient, frequently followed by disgust, and constantly 

 with the misery of the deluded object, and the affliction of 

 the families nearly connected and allied with it ; infallibly 

 followed by shame and remorse, often by a serious loss of pro- 

 perty, through the legal infliction of damages, and invariably 

 by the contempt and abhorrence of all considerate men. 

 Promiscuous gratification, on the other hand, generally in- 

 tails or generates the most loathsome diseases. 



Other evils resulting from the thoughtless indulgence of 

 youthful desires are derived from improvident marriages, 

 involving the parties and their growing families in distresses 

 and embarrassments for which nothing can compensate. 



Immoderate indulgence of the pleasures of the table is 

 generally attended with expences ruinous to fortune ; its 

 transient gratifications gradually impair the constitution, and 

 lay the foundation of various painful distempers, which far 

 surpass both in duration and intensity, the pleasures that oc- 

 casioned them. This observation is applicable with equal 

 certainty to the pleasure of intoxication, which moreover 



frequently 



