ESSAYS MORAL AND ENTERTAINING, ON THE VARIOUS FACULTIES AND PASSIONS OF THE HUMAN MIND. BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD, EARL OF CLARENDON. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: RE-PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1815. 1706 05 18155 12 ESSAYS MORAL AND ENTERTAINING. ON AN ACTIVE AND ON A CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE, AND WHEN AND WHY THE ONE OUGHT TO BE PREFERRED BEFORE THE OTHER.--(CONTINUED.) E We have prosecuted our inquisition into a contemplative life, what is meant by it, and what it cannot mean, what fruit it may bear, and what fruit it can never bear, far enough; and therefore it is time to proceed to as strict an enquiry into the nature and function of that active life that we would have preferred before it; of which we can hardly take a view, without frequent reflections upon the defects which are inseparable from the other, and the benefits that must necessarily attend or accompany this. The first and the greatest objection that is made against it, is the perpetual tempta tions it exposes a man to, and the great difficulty to preserve innocence in the pursuit of a busy and solicitous life; that the industry of it is common |