My only fear is, dearly beloved, lest by the unhappiness of wonted contrariety, by insisting on what is done, I should teach, rather than repress, sins; and that after the example of the Athenian Solon it would be better to be silent concerning great crimes, than to warn against them, the morals of our age having gone so far, that men deem themselves reminded, when they are forbidden. For this I suppose has very lately been the effect of my Cervulus,[1] that the offence has been wrought the more diligently, the more earnestly it was branded. And all that censure of a disgrace visibly stamped and often repeated, seems not to have repressed, but to have taught wantonness. Wretched man that I am! Where has been my guilt? They had not known, I suppose, how to act the wanton, had not I by blaming taught them.
- [1]note on his tract↩