Do not debase and despise your noble nature by thus
placing yourself in the same category with animals, which can have
nothing in common with the duties of your sublime mission.
The senses are blind, impetuous and changeable in their instincts;
inconstancy and change are so necessary to them, that, rather than be
condemned to remain immutable, they readily quit a more agreeable
object for another very inferior, simply to satisfy that need of
change inherent to their nature. Hence the strongest protestations,
the most assiduous attentions, and the most active devotedness,
though truly sincere in themselves, but when founded on the senses,
are like smoke that disappears, even as the material that produces
it. You will not have the right even to blame those who may deceive
you in this way, because it is not in the power of man to conserve
for any notable length of time a sentiment produced by the senses,
and which has received no higher sanction than that of the imagination.
The difference, however, between this abortive sentiment and a
genuine one is so palpable and characteristic that it is impossible
to be mistaken in them, unless that we wilfully close our eyes to the
truth.
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