ment_, whether of things or persons.

We are told indeed of many jealousies, discontents, and quarrels,
which have been occasioned by this passion, among those who might
otherwise have lived in perfect harmony; and a man or woman, who has
the character of being too inquisitive, is shunned as dangerous to
society.--But what commendable quality is there that may not be
perverted, or what _virtue_ whose extreme does not border on a
_vice_?--Even _devotion_ itself should have its bounds, or it will
launch into _bigotry_ and _enthusiasm_;--_love_, the most _generous_
and _gentle_ of all the passions, when ill-placed, or unprescribed,
degenerates into the very _worst_;--_justice_ may be pursued till it
becomes _cruelty_;--_emulation_ indulged till it grows up to
_envy_;--_frugality_ to the most sordid _avarice_; and _courage_ to a
brutal _rashness_;--and so I am ready to allow that _curiosity_, from
whence all the _good_ in us originally arises, may also be productive
of the _greatest mischiefs_, when not, like every other emotion of the
soul, kept within its due limits, and suffered to exert itself only on
warrantable objects.

It should therefore be the first care of every one to regulate this
propensity in himself, as well as of those under whose tuition he may
happen to be, whether parents or governors.--Nature, and the writings
of learned men, who from time to time have commented on all that has
happened in nature, certainly afford sufficient matter to gratify the
most enquiring mind, without descending to such mean trifling
inquisitions, as can no way improve itself, and may be of prejudice to
others.

I have dwelt the longer on this head, because it seems to me, that on
the _well_, or _ill direction_ of that curiosity, which is inherent to
us all, depends, in a great measure, the peace and happiness of
society.

Natura, like all children, uncircumscribed by precept, had not only a
desire of prying into those things which it was his advantage to know,
but also into those which he had much better have been totally
ignorant of, and which the discovery of his being too well skilled in,
frequently occasioned him much ill will, especially when he was found
to have too far dived into those little secrets which will ever be
among servants in large families. But reason was not ripe enough in
him to enable him to distinguish between what were proper subjects for
the exercise of this passion, and what were not so.

That im