of Nature, and never was, nor can be acquired.

The Love of Ease is an Opiate, it is pleasing for the time, quieteth
the Spirits, but it hath its Effects that seldom fail to be most
fatal. The immoderate Love of Ease maketh a Man's Mind pay a passive
Obedience to any thing that happeneth: It reduceth the Thoughts from
having _Desire_ to be _content_.

It must be allowed he had a little Over-balance on the well-natured
Side, not Vigour enough to be earnest to do a kind Thing, much less
to do a harsh one; but if a hard thing was done to another Man, he
did not eat his Supper the worse for it. It was rather a Deadness
than Severity of Nature, whether it proceeded from a Dissipation of
Spirits, or by the Habit of Living in which he was engaged.

If a King should be born with more Tenderness than might suit with his
Office, he would in time be hardned. The Faults of his Subjects make
Severity so necessary, that by the frequent Occasions given to use
it, it comes to be habitual, and by degrees the Resistance that Nature
made at first groweth fainter, till at last it is in a manner quite
extinguished.

In short, this Prince might more properly be said to have _Gifts_ than
_Virtues_, as Affability, Easiness of Living, Inclinations to give,
and to forgive: Qualities that flowed from his Nature rather than from
his Virtue.

He had not more Application to any thing than the Preservation of
his _Health_; it had an intire Preference to any thing else in his
Thoughts, and he might be said without Aggravation to study that, with
as little Intermission as any Man in the World. He understood it very
well, only in this he failed, that he thought it was more reconcilable
with his _Pleasures_, than it really was. It is natural to have such
a Mind to reconcile these, that 'tis the easier for any Man that goeth
about it, to be guilty of that Mistake.

This made him overdo in point of Nourishment, the better to furnish to
those Entertainments; and then he thought by great _Exercise_ to make
Amends, and to prevent the ill Effects of his Blood being too much
raised. The Success he had in this Method, whilst he had Youth and
Vigour to support him in it, encouraged him to continue it longer than
Nature allowed. Age stealeth so insensibly upon us, that we do not
think of suiting our way of Reasoning to the several Stages of Life;
so insensibly that not being able to pitch upon any _precise Time_,
when we cease to be young, we either flatte