on the other Hand, the Delicacy of their Sentiments makes them timorous lest they commit Faults, and lose in the Practice of the World that Integrity of Virtue, of which they are so jealous. To make Wisdom agree with Confidence is as difficult as to reconcile Vice to Modesty.
These are the Reflections that have occur'd to me upon this Subject of Impudence and Modesty; and I hope the Reader will not be displeased to see them wrought into the following Allegory.
Jupiter, in the Beginning, joined Virtue, Wisdom and Confidence together; and Vice, Folly, and Diffidence: And in that Society set them upon the Earth. But though he thought he had matched them with great judgment, and said that Confidence was the natural Companion of Virtue, and that Vice deserved to be attended with Diffidence, they had not gone far before Dissension arose among them. Wisdom, who was the Guide of the one Company, was always accustomed, before she ventured upon any Road, however beaten, to examine it care-fully;
