’Tis a Bad World, when the Rules and Measures of Good and Evil, are
either Inverted, or Mistaken; and when a Brand of Infamy passes for a
Badge of Honour. But the Common People do not Judge of Vice or Virtue, by
the Morality, or the Immorality of the Matter, so much as by the Stamp
that is set upon’t by Men of President and Figure. What’s more Familiar
then an Ostentation of Wickedness, where Impiety has the Reputation of
Virtue? As in the Excesses of Wine and Women, and the Vanity of bearing
up against all the Laws of God and Man. When Lewdness comes once to be
a Fashion, it has the Credit in the World that other Fashions have, as
we see many times an Affectation even of Deformity it self, where some
Exemplary Defect has brought that Deformity to be a Mode. The Fancy of
This _Dog_ was somewhat like the _French Woman_’s _Freak_, that stood
up for the Honour of her Family: _Her Coat was Quarter’d_, she said,
_with the Arms of_ France; which was so far True, that she had the
_Flower-de-Luce_ Stamp’d, we must not say _Branded_ upon her Shoulder.