A neighbouring country has
been of late a tragical theatre from which we might fetch instances,
if there needed any, and the world did not in all countries and ages
furnish examples enough to confirm that received observation,
Necessitas cogit ad turpia; and therefore there is great reason for us
to pray, "Lead us not into temptation."
(2) From wrong desires arising from wrong judgments. Other
uneasinesses arise from our desires of absent good; which desires
always bear proportion to, and depend on, the judgment we make, and
the relish we have of any absent good; in both which we are apt to
be variously misled, and that by our own fault.
60. Our judgment of present good or evil always right. In the
first place, I shall consider the wrong judgments men make of future
good and evil, whereby their desires are misled. For, as to present
happiness and misery, when that alone comes into consideration, and
the consequences are quite removed, a man never chooses amiss: he
knows what best pleases him, and that he actually prefers. Things in
their present enjoyment are what they seem: the apparent and real good
are, in this case, always the same. For, the pain or pleasure being
just so great and no greater than it is felt, the present good or evil
is really so much as it appears. And therefore were every action of
ours concluded within itself, and drew no consequences after it, we
should undoubtedly never err in our choice of good: we should always
infallibly prefer the best.
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