ses our age peculiarly doth abound in this
practice; for, besides the common dispositions inclining thereto,
there are conceits newly coined, and greedily entertained by many,
which seem purposely leveled at the disparagement of piety, charity,
and justice, substituting interest in the room of conscience,
authorizing and commending for good and wise, all ways serving to
private advantage. There are implacable dissensions, fierce
animosities, and bitter zeals sprung up; there is an extreme
curiosity, niceness, and delicacy of judgment; there is a mighty
affectation of seeming wise and witty by any means; there is a great
unsettlement of mind, and corruption of manners, generally diffused
over people; from which sources it is no wonder that this flood hath
so overflown, that no banks can restrain it, no fences are able to
resist it; so that ordinary conversation is full of it, and no
demeanor can be secure from it.

If we do mark what is done in many (might I not say, in most?)
companies, what is it but one telling malicious stories of, or
fastening odious characters upon, another? What do men commonly
please themselves in so much as in carping and harshly censuring, in
defaming and abusing their neighbors? Is it not the sport and
divertisement of many to cast dirt in the faces of all they meet
with? to bespatter any man with foul imputations? Doth not in every
corner a Momus lurk, from the venom of whose spiteful or petulant
tongue no eminency of rank, dignity of place, or sacredness of
office, no innocence or integrity of life, no wisdom or
circumspection in behavior, no good-nature or benignity in dealing
and carriage, can protect any person? Do not men assume to
themselves a liberty of telling romances, and framing characters
concerning their neighbors, as freely as a poet doth about Hector or
Turnus, Thersites or Draucus? Do they not usurp a power of playing
with, or tossing about, of tearing in pieces their neighbor's good
name, as if it were the veriest toy in the world? Do not many having
a form of godliness (some of them demurely, others confidently, both
without any sense of, or remorse for, what they do) backbite their
brethren? Is it not grown so common a thing to asperse causelessly
that no man wonders at it, that few dislike, that scarce any detest
it? that most notorious calumniators are heard, not only with
patience, but with pleasure; yea, are even held in vogue and
reverence as men of a notab