Excerpt from The Sinner's Guide, Vol. 1 of 2: In Two Books The motive I had to treat this subject was, that I saw most men extol virtue and follow vice, and conceived that, among many other causes which produced this evil, one was, that such persons did not understand the nature and properties of virtue, looking upon it as harsh, barren and dull and, therefore, believing vice to be'more delightful, they give themselves wholly up to it, utterly casting off virtue, which they suppose to be distasteful. Being, therefore, concerned to see mankind thus deluded, I resolved to take the pains here to describe the inestimable worth, amiableness, dignity and beauty of this heavenly spouse, and to make appear how little she is known, that this might undeceive and induce them to fall in love with what so well deserves it. For if it be true, that virtue is one of the most excellent things in heaven or on earth, and which best merits love and esteem, it is a great mis fortune that man should so little know, and keep at such a distance from this great good; and, therefore, he does the public signal ser vice who endeavors to restore this lady to her honor, and seat her on her royal throne, since she is sovereign queen and mistress of all things. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.