Of Self-Love.
SElf love is the ground from whence springs all Indeavours and Industry, Noble Qualities, Honorable Actions, Friend∣ships, Charity, and Piety, and is the cause of all Passions, Affe∣ctions Vices and Virtues; for we do nothing, or think not of any thing, but hath a reference to our selves in one kind or other, either in things Divine, Humane, or Natural; for if we part with Life, which is the chiefest good to Mankind, it is because we think in Death there is lesse Pain than in Life, without that we part with Life for; and if we endure Torment which is worse than Death, for any Thing, or Opinion, it is because our Delight of what we suffer for, is beyond all Pains; which Delight proceeds from Self-Love, and Self-Love is the strongest Motion of the Mind; for it strives to attract all Delight, and gathers together, like the Sun Beams, in one Point, as with a Glass, wherewith it sets all one fire; So Self-Love infires the Mind, which makes it Subtil and Active, and sometimes Raging, Violent and Mad; and as it is the First that seiseth on us, so it is the Last that parts from us; and though Reason should be the Judge of the Mind, yet Self-Love is the Tyrant which makes the State of the Mind unhappy; for it is so partially Covetous, that it desires more than all, and is contented with nothing, which makes it many times grow Fu∣rious, even to the ruin of its own Monarchy.