Ethical Handbook

To the Reader.

...reflecting upon this very thing, I—the same man who yesterday so bravely repelled those external darts—immediately succumb, pierced by the internal stings of conscience Latin: conscientiae. For this, among other things, sharply bit and burned my mind: that unless I now—while I am being swept away elsewhere by such a great impulse of pleasure—immediately girded myself for this work (in which at least some hope of public benefit Latin: publici commodi shines forth), I could not be certain that for all those labors I have hitherto endured in writing, the motive of the Pleasurable Latin: Jucundi rather than the Honorable Latin: Honesti had perpetually driven me; and that they were not so much the fruits of true Virtue Latin: Virtutis as the effects of a certain itch for writing Latin: Cacoëthes; specifically Cacoëthes scribendi, a satirical Roman term for an incurable compulsion to write..

So much so, that the very thing which previously called me back most strongly now most violently of all impelled me to undertake this present work. And the more unpleasant it seemed, the more obstinately I approached it, so that my own sincerity Latin: sinceritate might be more clearly evident to myself.

But in truth, to frankly confess the reality of the matter, once I had outlined the scope of the whole work in my mind (which I did in a very short space of time) and had completed a part of it, the undertaking began to please and charm me so much that, although certain things happened in the middle of my progress