They who think they honour marriage by joining love to it, do, methinks, like those who, to favour virtue, hold that nobility is nothing else but virtue. They are indeed things that have some relation to one another, but there is a great deal of difference; we should not so mix their names and titles; 'tis a wrong to them both so to confound them. Nobility is a brave quality, and with good reason introduced; but forasmuch as 'tis a quality depending upon others, and may happen in a vicious person, in himself nothing, 'tis in estimate infinitely below virtue';

Endroit: CHAPTER V. · ¶3998
Licence: Public domain · Source
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Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (WLC), CC BY 4.0

They who think they honour marriage by joining love to it, do, methink… — Essays