Men and Persons of Intrigue, are advanced very far in Years, and beyond the Pleasures and Sallies of Youth; but now WILL. observes, that the Young have taken in the Vices of the Aged, and you shall have a Man of Five and Twenty crafty, false, and intriguing, not ashamed to over-reach, cozen, and beguile.  My Friend adds, that till about the latter end of King Charles’s Reign, there was not a Rascal of any Eminence under Forty:  In the Places of Resort for Conversation, you now hear nothing but what relates to the improving Mens Fortunes, without regard to the Methods toward it.  This is so fashionable, that young Men form themselves upon a certain Neglect of every thing that is candid, simple, and worthy of true Esteem; and affect being yet worse than they are, by acknowledging in their general turn of Mind and Discourse, that they have not any remaining Value for true Honour and Honesty; preferring the Capacity of being Artful to gain their Ends, to the Merit of despising those Ends when they come in competition with their Honesty.  All this is due to the very silly Pride that generally prevails, of being valued for the Ability of carrying their Point; in a word, from the Opinion that shallow and inexperienced People entertain of the short-liv’d Force of Cunning.  But I shall, before I enter upon the various Faces which Folly cover’d with Artifice puts on to impose upon the Unthinking, produce a great Authority [1] for asserting, that nothing but Truth and Ingenuity has any lasting good Effect, even upon a Man’s Fortune and Interest.

Truth and Reality have all the Advantages of Appearance, and many more.  If the Shew of any thing be good for any thing, I am sure Sincerity is better:  For why does any Man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a Quality as he pretends to? for to counterfeit and dissemble, is to put on the Appearance of some real Excellency.  Now the best way in the World for a Man to seem to be any thing, is really to be what he would seem to be.  Besides that it is many times as troublesome to make good the Pretence of a good Quality, as to have it; and if a Man have it not, it is ten to one but he is discover’d to want it, and then all his Pains and Labour to seem to have it is lost.  There is something unnatural in Painting, which a skillful Eye will easily discern from native Beauty and Complexion.

It is hard to personate and act a Part long; for where Truth is not at the bottom, Nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray her self one time or other.  Therefore if any Man think it convenient to seem good, let him be so indeed, and then his Goodness will appear to every body’s Satisfaction; so that upon all accounts Sincerity is true Wisdom.  Particularly as to the Affairs of this World, Integrity hath many Advantages over all the fine and artificial ways of Dissimulation and Deceit; it is much the plainer and easier, much