Ever maintain a virtuous and pious frame of spirit: for an indulgence of vicious inclinations debases the understanding, and perverts the judgment. Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take away the heart, and soul, and reason of a man. Sensuality ruins the better faculties of the mind; an indulgence to appetite and passion enfeebles the powers of reason; it makes the judgement weak and susceptive of every falsehood, and especially of such mistakes as have a tendency towards the gratification of the animal; and it warps the soul aside strangely from that steadfast honesty and integrity that necessarily belong to the pursuit of truth. It is the virtuous man who is in a fair way to wisdom.
Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.15
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