PASSIONS cmd different TEMPERS. 
149 
LETTER L. 
Ao the fame. 
Madam, 
M UCH more may be laid in two hours converfation, than. 
any reafonable man would attempt to include in two 
or three letters, efpecially when they are addreffed to a lady. 
The paffions and different tempers of men ; our various fi- 
tuations in life, and the good or evil arifing from thence, with 
regard to a future Rate, was alio a fubjed of our difcourfe. I 
told you my notion, that as god is infinitely wife and juft, there- 
fore it muft follow that all things are weighed in the fcales of 
infinite justice, and confidered with infinite mercy. It is 
impoftible to fathom thefe attributes ; the very attempt is impi- 
ous ; neither ought we to pry into the concerns of others ; we 
fhall find bufinefs enough at home : man is a world to him- 
felf, and muft be careful how he conduds the concerns of it. 
Every mortal is prone to evil, but fome propenfities are not 
fo much the effeds of malignity of difpofition, as of weaknefs 
or infirmity of mind, arifing from its affinity with the body : 
<c Hence different paffions more or lefs enflame, 
“ As Jlrong , or weak y the organs of the frame A 
But as with regard to the body, men who are fubjed to fevers, 
ought by all means to abftain from hard drinking ; fo in the 
soul, the caufes which increafe the diforders of it, ought with 
equal care to be avoided. Virtue and vice depend fo much 
on. 
2. 
