Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/59

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38
A Diſcourſe
Book I.

under this other; so farr is he many times from the acknowledgement of his fall and fault, that he often makes it his boast, and esteems it a praise-worthy thing. For it is styl'd Piety and Commiseration, and there wants but little; that this publick Feaver is not consecrated not only amongst the Virtues; but the very Deities themselves. The Poets and Oratours do everywhere extoll and inculcate the fervent Love of our Country: Nor do I my self desire altogether to erase it, but to temper and moderate it; this is all that I contend for. For assuredly it is a very vice, a Disease, the very fall of the Mind, and the casting of it down from its seat. But withall on the other side, it is a very grievous Disease, inasmuch as therein there is not a single Grief only, but your own and anothers confounded, and that other is also double, respecting the Men, or the Country.

That you may the better apprehend

what