Note 213 — WHETHER VICE IS SUFFICIENT TO RENDER A MAN UNHAPPY.[213]

Tho’ this tract is so defective, both in the beginning and end, that they cannot, even to this present, be so much as guess’d at; yet the title and fragment we have left sufficiently discover the author’s intention. Now as, from the ruins of an old regal palace, our imagination does in some sort represent to us, how beautiful it was whilst it stood entire; so this little remnant suffices to show the greatness of our loss. But though the injury of time has depriv’d us of this benefit, and many others of like nature; yet this remainder, as imperfect as it is, may be profitable to us, and serve to put us in mind of our duty. Our author having, in the beginning, describ’d the misery of a covetous person, and of a courtier, adds, in prosecution of his principal design, that Vice is the absolute effector of infelicity, having need of no instruments or servants, to render a man miserable; whence he collects, that there is no danger or calamity which we ought not rather to choose, than to be vicious. He answers the objections made to the contrary, and concludes that no adversity can prejudice us, if it be not accompany’d with Vice. (S. W.)