••ery daring and extensive, tho' altogether ••evoid of justice. Such as those of the Cardinals of Richlieu and of Retz. The ••bjects of avarice and ambition differ only in their greatness. A miser is as ••urious about a halfpenny, as a man of ambition about the conquest of a king|••om.
II. Secondly, I say, it will depend part|••y upon the precision and exactness, or ••he looseness and inaccuracy of the gene|••al rules themselves, how far our conduct ought to proceed entirely from a regard to them.
The general rules of almost all the virtues, the general rules which determine what are the offices of prudence, of cha|rity, of generosity, of gratitude, of friend|ship, are in many respects loose and in|accurate, admit of many exceptions, and require so many modifications, that it is scarce possible to regulate our conduct en|••irely by a regard to them. The common proverbial maxims of prudence, being founded in universal experience, are per|haps the best general rules which can be given about it. To affect, however, a
