h-counselling Ulysses, in as much as when by the enchantment of Circe
he had been turned into a hog, he would not lay down his swinishness,
nor forsake his beloved sty, to run the peril of a hazardous voyage.
For a farther confirmation whereof I have the authority of Homer, that
captain of all poetry, who, as he gives to mankind in general, the
epithet of wretched and unhappy, so he bestows in particular upon
Ulysses the title of miserable, which he never attributes to Paris,
Ajax, Achilles, or any other of the commanders; and that for this
reason, because Ulysses was more crafty, cautious, and wise, than any of
the rest.

[Illustration: 156]

As those therefore fall shortest of happiness that reach highest
at wisdom, meeting with the greater repulse for soaring beyond the
boundaries of their nature, and without remembering themselves to be but
men, like the fallen angels, daring them to vie with Omnipotence, and
giant-like scale heaven with the engines of their own brain; so are
those most exalted in the road of bliss that degenerate nearest into
brutes, and quietly divest themselves of all use and exercise of reason.

And this we can prove by a familiar instance. As namely, can there be
any one sort of men that enjoy themselves better than those which we
call idiots, changelings, fools and naturals? It may perhaps sound
harsh, but upon due consideration it will be found abundantly true, that
these persons in all circumstances fare best, and live most comfortably;
as first, they are void of all fear, which is a very great privilege
to be exempted from; they are troubled with no remorse, nor pricks of
conscience; they are not frighted with any bugbear stories of another
world; they startle not at the fancied appearance of ghosts, or
apparitions; they are not wracked with the dread of impending mischiefs,
nor bandied with the hopes of any expected enjoyments: in short, they
are unassaulted by all those legions of cares that war against the quiet
of rational souls; they are ashamed of nothing, fear no man, banish the
uneasiness of ambition, envy, and love; and to add the reversion of a
future happiness to the enjoyment of a present one, they have no sin
neither to answer for; divines unanimously maintaining, that a gross
and unavoidable ignorance does not only extenuate and abate from the
aggravation, but wholly expiate the guilt of any immorality.

[Illustration: 159]

Come now then as many of you as challenge the r