34. This is the spring of action.
When a man is perfectly content with the state he is in--which is when he is
perfectly without any uneasiness--what industry, what action, what will is there left, but to continue in it? Of this
every man's observation will satisfy him. And thus we see our all-wise Maker, suitably to our constitution and
frame, and knowing what it is that determines the will, has put into man the uneasiness of hunger and thirst, and
other natural desires, that return at their seasons, to move and determine their wills, for the preservation of
themselves, and the continuation of their species. For I think we may conclude, that, if the bare contemplation of
these good ends to which we are carried by these several uneasinesses had been sufficient to determine the will,
and set us on work, we should have had none of these natural pains, and perhaps in this world little or no pain at
all. "It is better to marry than to burn," says St. Paul, where we may see what it is that chiefly drives men into the
enjoyments of a conjugal life. A little burning felt pushes us more powerfully than greater pleasures in prospect
draw or allure.
