THis complaisant Physitian (Sophronia) is you see very sollicitous, that his Remedies should as well gratifie the Patient, as oppose the Disease: And besides, that this Julip is ting’d with Sirrup of Clove-gilly-flowers, that it may at once delight the Palate, and the Eye; some of these other Remedies are sweetned with as much Sugar, as if they came not from an Apothecaries Shop, but a Confectioners. But my Mouth is too much out of Taste to rellish any thing that passes through it; and though my Sickness makes this Flattering of the Palate almost necessary to the rendring these Medicines takable by me, yet upon the account of the same Distemper, all that the Doctor’s tenderness and skil could do to make them Pleasant, can at most but keep them from being Loathsome. And therefore, you will easily believe, Sophronia, that I enjoy these sweet things upon a score, that if it does Imbitter them, does at least, as to me, deprive them of their Nature: So that he, that for the sake of these Sirrups, and Electuaries, should, notwithstanding the Malady that needs them, envy me, might be suspected to be troubled with a worse Disease than an Ague is, a Frensie.
Thus there are many Favourites of Fortune, whose seeming Enjoyments may perchance be Envy’d by those that do but Gaze on their Condition, whilst ‘tis rather pitty’d by those that know it: To be brought by Greatness of Power, or Riches, and Effeminacy of Mind, to that pass, that they seldome hear any thing but their own Praises, ev’n when their Actions merit Reprehension, and that they can rellish nothing that is not sweetned with so much of Flattery, as quite to disguise, and perhaps pervert, its Nature. These, as I was going to say, and such other unhappy Priviledges, are things, which (whatever Fools may think) will not recommend Greatness to a considering Man, and are far more fit to procure the Possessour’s ruine, than wise Men’s envy: And besides, that a vain and impotent Soul is, by those disquieting Qualities, molested with greater Distempers than those Gratifications can make amends for, and which often hinder the full Rellishing of these or any other Pleasure. The delight these treacherous Delicacies afford, is so much less considerable than the Weakness they suppose; that ‘tis far more Eligible to be without them than to need them.
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