It's Not The Pace Of Life I

A Wise Man Should So Write (though In Words Understood By All Men) That Wise Men Only Should Be Able To Commend Him.

The Pacts And Covenants, By Which The Parts Of This Body Politique Were At First Made, Set Together, And United, Resemble That Fiat, Or The Let Us Make Man, Pronounced By God In The Creation.

And In These Four Things, Opinion Of Ghosts , Ignorance Of Second Causes, Devotion Towards What Men Fear , And Taking Of Things Casual For Prognostics , Consisteth The Natural Seed Of Religion ; Which By Reason Of The Different Fancies, Judgments And Passions Of Several Men, Has Grown Up Into Ceremonies So Different, That Those Which Are Used By One Man, Are For The Most Part Ridiculous To Another.

In Sum, All Actions And Habits Are To Be Esteemed Good Or Evil By Their Causes And Usefulness In Reference To The Commonwealth, And Not By Their Mediocrity, Nor By Their Being Commended. For Several Men Praise Several Customs, And, Contrarily, What One Calls Vice, Another Calls Virtue, As Their Present Affections Lead Them.

It Is Fairer To Tax People On What They Extract From The Economy, As Roughly Measured By Their Consumption, Than To Tax Them On What They Produce For The Economy, As Roughly Measured By Their Income.