1791' t- AK?}^U9 SENECA TO LUCILltJf. 32 J 



thr.t when v/e depart from thefe we mufl; be unTiappy ; 

 and what do you think it is that creates that relUefnefs 

 and difcontent of mind that we every day obfcrve in 

 fociety, but the troublefome efforts of travellers that 

 have left th<rir road, and are feeking to regain it by 

 fooliih conjectures of their own, without wifely return- 

 ing back to the point where they left it, that they may 

 find all things accommodated to their progrefs. 



"The view of diforder and incohtrence is naturally 

 unpleafing ; we delight in the fymmetry of buildings, 

 and in the interccluiriindutions of a houfe or of a tem- 

 ple, becaufe they make us to underftand the nature and 

 the ufes of the parts, and of the whole. In like man- 

 ner, when we 2Q. from the impulfes of pafTion, and 

 tlie gratifications of ftnfe, without a final and rational 

 purpofe, our whole intellecftual frame is difturbed, and 

 we naturally defire to regain our tranquillity, which 

 can be obtained only by ftrift conformity to goodnefs, 

 or Virtue, which confiils altogether in rendering the 

 body obedient to the foul, in the purfuit of final pur- 

 pofes that are conducive to its perpetual improvement. 



*' Confider, for a moment, the preporterous attempt to 

 make a body that is continually fubjeft to change, and 

 tending continually to new defires, arihng from the dif- 

 ferent ftages of infancy, youth, manhood, and age, and 

 its variety of local fituations, fettle itfelf on determined 

 objects of fruition, for which its powers, as of fliort 

 duration and intcnfity, muft quickly produce difap- 

 pointment or fatiety and difguft. 



" Thus the man who fiiould place his chief delight in 

 hunting the ftag or the boar, rauft become miferable 

 when either his infirmities or the want of opportunity 

 (liould prevent him from enjoying his purluit ; and 

 thuj the woman who placed her happinefs in the pub- 

 lic gamco and fpc6tacles of Rome, and in the admira- 

 tion of young men, would languiih in the country, and 



