After all that corrupt poets, and more corrupt philosophers, have told us of the blandishments of pleasure, and of its tendency to soften the temper and humanize the affections, it is certain, that nothing hardens the heart like excessive and unbounded luxury; and he who refuses the fewest gratifications to his own voluptuousness, will generally be found the least susceptible of tenderness for the wants of others.
Hannah More (1818). “Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great, to General Society: An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World. Remarks on the Speech of M. Dupont. And Tracts Written During the Riots of 1817”, p.9
