abate

[Letter to Algernon Sidney dated 13 October 1681 (Julian calendar).] There are many things make a man's life uneasy in the world, which are great abates to the pleasure of living, but scarcely one equal to that of the unkindness or injustice of friends.

That men weigh heavier dead than alive, if experiment hath not failed us, we cannot reaſonably grant. For though the triall hereof cannot ſo well be made on the body of Man, nor will the difference be ſenſible in the abate of ſcruples or dragmes, yet can we not confirm the ſame in leſſer animalls from whence the inference is good; […]