2502. There was such a poison in [apud] them as blunted all power of acting in the true and good, so that they took away all zeal. They have been with me for some days, and have caused me such trouble [molestia] to think and do what is serious, true, and good, and to seeing these that I scarce knew what I was doing. Such is the influx of such poison when they are in the society of good spirits. They induce in them a listlessness for doing good and that which belongs to their business [muneris]. So he who inclines [inclinant for inclinat, I think] to labors and uses in the commonwealth when he comes among such, or into their societies, then all his zeal grows torpid; therefore the human race is especially seduced [misled] by these. Wherefore kings exclude such from their courts [aulis], for they greatly injure societies, and withdraw them from the good and true, so that they are at length ensnared by the study of these things as something sweet; for they live sumptuously, clothe magnificently, enjoy only [their] ease, hold in hatred those who are industrious and zealous for what is true and good: they are destroyers of the human race; for it is known that those who begin to indulge in ease derive therefrom the greatest sweetness; like beggars who accustom [habituate] themselves to that ease, and so are restrained from, and deprived of all zeal to be members of civil society, or to be citizens. Such cannot be called citizens, but destroyers of citizens. - 1748, July 3.))))