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Compassion, then, one wou'd think, shou'd work upon those that are good, to discourage by all their Endeavours, such Customs as bring on the ruine of many, and do hurt to the whole, tho' they shou'd have strength to go in, without being tainted themselves: Not that they can pretend to be safe even from taking Infection, if once their Preservatives come to be frequently used, and to lose their Virtue, as they will by degrees.
So the Plague defied all medicines; the very physicians were seized with it, with their preservatives in their mouths; and men went about prescribing to others and telling them what to do till the tokens were upon them, and they dropped down dead, destroyed by that very enemy they directed others to oppose.
He purifies endlessly his house, saying that Hecate that is, the moon has exercised some malign influence on it; and many other purifications he observes, of which I shall only say that they are by their nature plainly, like the last, meant as preservatives against unseen malarias or contagions, possible or impossible.
If he carefully avoided love, it was because he knew himself, and felt a premonition of the empire such a passion would exercise upon him. For several years the crushing toil by which he prepared the solid ground of his subsequent works, and the chill of poverty, were marvellous preservatives.
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