of man is immortal,
and that God of His goodness has designed that it should be happy; and
that He has therefore appointed rewards for good and virtuous actions,
and punishments for vice, to be distributed after this life. Though
these principles of religion are conveyed down among them by tradition,
they think that even reason itself determines a man to believe and
acknowledge them, and freely confess that if these were taken away no
man would be so insensible as not to seek after pleasure by all possible
means, lawful or unlawful; using only this caution, that a lesser
pleasure might not stand in the way of a greater, and that no pleasure
ought to be pursued that should draw a great deal of pain after it; for
they think it the maddest thing in the world to pursue virtue, that is a
sour and difficult thing; and not only to renounce the pleasures of
life, but willingly to undergo much pain and trouble, if a man has no
prospect of a reward. And what reward can there be for one that has
passed his whole life, not only without pleasure, but in pain, if there
is nothing to be expected after death? Yet they do not place happiness
in all sorts of pleasures, but only in those that in themselves are good
and honest. There is a party among them who place happiness in bare
virtue; others think that our natures are conducted by virtue to
happiness, as that which is the chief good of man. They define virtue
thus, that it is a living according to Nature, and think that we are
made by God for that end; they believe that a man then follows the
dictates of Nature when he pursues or avoids things according to the
direction of reason; they say that the first dictate of reason is the
kindling in us a love and reverence for the Divine Majesty, to whom we
owe both all that we have, and all that we can ever hope for. In the
next place, reason directs us to keep our minds as free from passion and
as cheerful as we can, and that we should consider ourselves as bound by
the ties of good-nature and humanity to use our utmost endeavours to
help forward the happiness of all other persons; for there never was any
man such a morose and severe pursuer of virtue, such an enemy to
pleasure, that though he set hard rules for men to undergo much pain,
many watchings, and other rigours, yet did not at the same time advise
them to do all they could, in order to relieve and ease the miserable,
and who did not represent gentleness and good-nature as amiable