but under the additional character of the most short-sighted folly and weakness. Epi|curus appears in every virtue to have at|tended to this species of propriety only. It is that which is most apt to occur to those who are endeavouring to persuade others to regu|larity of conduct. When men by their prac|tice and perhaps too by their maxims, mani|festly show that the natural beauty of virtue is not likely to have much effect upon them, how is it possible to move them but by re|presenting the folly of their conduct, and how much they themselves are in the end likely to suffer by it?
By running up all the different virtues too to this one species of propriety, Epicurus in|dulged a propensity, which is natural to all men, but which philosophers in particular are apt to cultivate with a peculiar fondness, as the great means of displaying their inge|nuity, the propensity to account for all ap|pearances from as few principles as possible▪ And he, no doubt, indulged this propensity still further, when he referred all the primary objects of natural desire and aversion to the pleasures and pains of the body. The great patron of the atomical philosophy, who 〈◊〉〈◊〉 so much pleasure in deducing all the pow••••
