The Extravagant Heats and Transports of Lovers, and Voluptuaries, take
away all Shame. This Fable Hints to us the Wild Extravagances of an
Unbridled Appetite, and that till that Devil be laid, there can be no
Thought of Lodging _Carnal Love_ and _Modesty_ under the same Roof.
_Jupiter_’s forgetting _Modesty_ in the Composition of Man, Intimates the
Difficulty of Admitting it, till Flesh and Blood has done the Friendly
Office towards the Peopling of the World; for there’s hardly any Place
for Councel, till these Heats are in some Measure taken off; and it is no
Wonder, that when Love comes to be without Reason, it should be without
_Modesty_ too; for when ’tis once past _Government_, it is consequently
past _Shame_. When Our Corruptions, in fine, are Strong, and our
Understandings Weak, we are apter to Hearken to the Motions of the Blood,
and to the Vain Imaginations of a Deprav’d Affection, then to the Dry
Doctrines and Preceps of Authority and Virtue.
This Difficulty of keeping Young and Hot Blood in Order, does mightily
Enforce the Necessity of an Early Care for the Training up of Children,
and giving them a Tincture, before it be too Late, of those Doctrines
and Principles, by which they are afterward to Govern the Whole Frame
of their Lives. For in their Tender Years they are more Susceptible of
Profitable and Vertuous Impressions, then afterward, when they come to
be Sollicited by the Impulse of Common, and Vulgar Inclinations. They
should in Truth, be kept out of Distance, of either Seeing or Hearing
Ill Examples: Especially in an Age that is Govern’d more by President
then by Reason.