72 Gbe <$ar&en 



Since we cannot escape the pursuit of passions 

 and perplexity of thoughts which our reason 

 furnishes us, there is no way left, but to 

 endeavor all we can either to subdue or to 

 divert them. This last is the common business 

 of common men, who seek it by all sorts of 

 sports, pleasures, play, or business. But, 

 because the two first are of short continuance, 

 soon ending with weariness, or decay of vigor 

 and appetite, the return whereof must be 

 attended before the others can be renewed ; 

 and because play grows dull if it be not 

 enlivened with the hopes of gain, the general 

 diversion of mankind seems to be business, or 

 the pursuit of riches in one kind or other; 

 which is an amusement that has this one 

 advantage above all others, that it lasts those 

 men who engage in it to the very end of their 

 lives ; none ever growing too old for the 

 thoughts and desires of increasing his wealth 

 and fortunes, either for himself, his friends, or 

 his posterity. 



In the first and most simple ages of each 

 country, the conditions and lives of men seem 

 to have been very near of kin with the rest of 

 the creatures : they lived by the hour, or by the 

 day, and satisfied their appetite with what they 

 could get from the herbs, the fruits, the springs 

 they met with when they were hungry or dry ; 



