If it be true, that understanding and the will are the two eminent faculties of the reasonable soul, it
follows necessarily, that wisdom and virtue, (which are the best improvement of these two
faculties,) must be the perfection also of our reasonable being; and consequently, the undeniable
foundation of a happy life.
Philosophy is divided into moral, natural, and rational: the first concerns our manners; the second
searches the works of Nature; and the third furnishes us with propriety of words and arguments,
and the faculty of deistinguishing, that we may not be imposed upon with tricks and
fallacies.
Moral philosophy is again divided into matter of justice, which arises from the estimation of things
and of men; and into affections and actions; and a failing in anyone of these, disorders all the rest;
for what does it profit us to know the true value of things, if we be transported by our passions? or
to master our appetites without understanding the when, the whar, the how, and other
circumstances of our proceddings?
Natural philosophy is conversant about things corporeal and incorporeal; the disquisition of causes
and effects, and the contemplation of the cause of causes. Rational philosophy, is divided into
logic and rhetoric; the one looks after words, sense, and order; the other treats barely of words,
and the significations of them.
Honors, monuments, and all the works of vanity and ambition, are demolished and destroyed by
time; but the reputation of wisdom is venerable to posterity: ...
They are men of sobriety and learning, and free from boasting and insolence; they reprove the vice
without reproaching the person: for they have learned to be wise without either pomp or
envy.
No man is born wise; but wisdom and virtue require a tutor, though we can easily learn to be
vicious without a master. It is philosophy that gives us a veneration of God, a charity for our
neighbor, that teaches us our duty to heaven, and exhorts us to an agreement one with another; it
unmasks things that are terrible to us, assuages our lusts, refutes our errors, restrains our luxury,
reproves our avarice, and works strangely upon tender natures.
"More than we use," says he [Attalus], "is more than we need, and only a burden to the bearer."
Now, Sextius abstained upon another account, which was, that he would not have men inured to
hardness of heart by the laceration anf tormenting of living creatures; beside, that Nature had
sufficiently provided for the sustenance of mankind without blood." This wrought so far upon me
that I gave over eating of flesh, and in one year I made it not only easy to me but pleasant; muy
mind methought was more at liberty, (and I am still of the same opinion,) but I gave it over
nevertheless; and the reason was this: It was imputed as a superstition to the Jews, the
forbearance of some sorts of flesh, and my father brought me back again to my old custom, that I
might not be thought tainted with their superstition.
Philosophy is the health of the mind; let us look to theat health first, and in the second place to that
of the body, which may be had upon easier terms...
There is a great difference betwixt the splendor of philosophy and of fortune; the one shines with
an original light, the other with a borrowed one; beside that it makes us happy and immortal: for
learning shall outlive palaces and monuments.
This is the way of heaven which Nature has chalked out, and it is both secure and pleasant; there
needs no train of servants, no pomp or equipage, to make good our passages; no money, or
letters of credit, for expense upon the voyage; but the graces of an honest mind will serve us upon
the way; and make us happy at our journey's end.
We take a great deal of time as well spent to look to ourselves that we may not wander at all?
Are not we ourselves tossed with tempestuous passions? and both assaulted by terrible monsters
on the one hand, and tempted by syrens on the other? Teach me my duty to my country, to my
father, to my wife, to mankind. What is it to me whether Penelope was honest or not? teach me to
know how to be so myself, and to live according to that knowledge. What am I the better for
putting so many parts together in music, and raising a harmony out of so many different tones?
teach me to tune my affections, and to hold constant to myself. Geometry teaches me the art of
measuring acres; teach me to measure my appetites, and to know when I have enough; teach me
to divide with my brother, and to rejoice in the prosperity of my neighbor. You teach me how I
may hold my own, and keep my estate; but I would rather learn how I may loose it all, and yet be
contented.
Let me rather fortify myself against death and inevitable necessities; let me understand that the
good of life does not consist in the length or space, but in the use of it.
V
...philosophy, being only a limited wisdom; and good counsels a communicatoin of that wisdom,
for the good of others, as well as of ourselves; and to posterity, as well as to the present. The
wisdom of the ancients, as to the government of life, was no more than certain precepts, what to
do and what not: and men were much bettter in that simplicity...
And so for the virtues; it is to no purpose to set a high esteem upon prudence, fortitude,
temperance, justice, if we do not first know what virtue is: whether one or more; or if he that has
one, has all; or how they differ.
A precept delivered in verse has a much greater effect than in prose:...
It is a great virtue to love, to give, and to follow good gounsel; if it does not lead us to honesty, it
does at least prompt us to it. As several parts make up but one harmony, and the most agreeable
music arises from discords; so should a wise man gather many acts, many precepts, and the
examples of many arts, to avoid three things; hatred, ency, and contempt...
...friendship is sacred...
well as to talk: and to make our words and actions all of one color.
It is eminent mark of wisdom for a man to be always like himself. You shall have some that keep
a thrifty table, and lavish out uopn building; profuse upon themselves, and forbid to others....
This diversity is vicious, and the effect of a dissatisfied and uneasy mind; whereas every wise man
lives by rule.
We are all slaves to fortune: some only in loose and golden chains, others in strait ones, and
coarser: nay, and they bind us are slaves too themselves; some to honor, others to wealth; some
to offices, others to contempt; some to their superiors, others to themsleves: nay, life itself is a
servitude: let us make the best of it then, and with our philosophy mend our fortune.
Let us covet nothing out of our reach, but content ourselves with things hopeful and at hand; and
without envying the advantages of others: for greatness stands upon a craggy precipice, and it is
much safer and quieter living upon alevel.
Let us pray for a good mind, which is a wish to no man's injury. I will remember always that I am
a man, and then consider, that if I am happy, it will not last always; if unhappy, I may be other if I
please. I will carry my life in my hand, and deliver it up readily when it shall be called for. I will
have a care of being a slave to myself; for it is a perpetual, a shameful, and the heaviest of all
servitudes: and this may be done by moderate desires. I will say to myself, "What is it that I
labour, sweat, and solicit for, when it is but very little that I want, and it will not be long that I shall
need anything?"
Let him mortify himself with fasting, coarse clothes, and hard lodging; and then say himself, "Is this
the thing now that I was afraid of?" In a state of security a man may this prepare himself against
hazards, and in plenty fortify himself against want.
He that would live happily, must neither trust to good fortune nor submit to bad: he must stand
upon his guard against all assaults; he must stick to himself, without any dependence upon other
people. Where the mind is tinctured with philosophy, ther is no place for grief, anxiety, or
superfluous vexations.
Few words, with gentleness and efficacy, are best: the misery is, that the wise do not need
counsel, and fools will not take it. A good man, it is true, delights in it; and it is a mark of folly and
ill-nature to hate reproof. To a friend I would be always frank and plain; and rather fail in the
success than be wanting in the matter of faith and trust.
Do not tell me what a man should do in health or poverty, but show me the way to be either sound
or rich. Teach me to master my vices: for it is to no purpose, so long as I am under their
government, to tell me what I must do when I am clear of it.
VI
"A good conscience is the testimony of a good life, and the reward of it." This is it that fortifies the
mind against fortune, when a man has gotten the mastery of his passions; placed his treasure and
security within himself; learned to be content with his condition; and that death is no evil in itself,
but only the end of man.
Every man has a judge and a witness within hismelf of all good and ill that he does, which inspires
us with great thoughts, and administers to us wholesome counsels. We have a veneration for all
works of Nature, the heads of rivers, and the springs of medicinal waters; the horrors of groves
and of caves strike us with an impression of religion and worship. To see a man fearless in
dangers, untainted with lusts, happy in adversity, composed in a tumult, and laughing at all those
things which are generally either coveted or feared; all men must acknowledge that this can be
nothing else but a beam of divinity that influences a mortal body.
The whole creation we see conforms to the dictates of Providence, and follows God both as a
governor and as a guide. A great, a good, and a right mind, is a kind of divinty lodged in flesh,
and may be the blessing of a slave as well as of a prince; it came from heaven, and to heaven it
must return; and it is a kind of heavenly felicity, which a pure and virtuous mind enjoys, in some
degree, even upon earth: whereas temples of honour are but empty names, which, probably, owe
their beginning either to ambition or violence.
The common people take stomach and audacity for the marks of magnanimityand honor; and if a
man be soft and modest, they look upon him as an easy flop; but when they come once to observe
the dignity of his mind in the equality and firmness of his actions, and that his external quiet is
founded upon an internal peace, the very same people have him in esteem and admiration: for
there is no mman but approves of virtue, though but few pursue it; we see where it is, but we dare
not venture to come at it: and the reason is, we overvalue that which we must quit to obtain it. A
good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude. If we do
nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it; but if otherwise, what does it signify to have
nobody else know it, so long as I myself know it? Miserable is he that slights that witness!
Wickedness, it is true, may escape the law, but not the conscience: for a private conviction is the
first and the greatedt punishment of offenders; so that sin plagues itslef; and the fear of vengeance
pursues even those that escape the stroke of it. It were ill for good men that iniquity may so easily
evade the law, the judge, and the execution, if Nature had not set up torments and gibbets in the
conscience of trangressors. He that is guilty lives in perpetual terror; and while he expects to be
punished, he punishes himself; and whosoever deserves it expects it.
True happiness is not to be found in excesses of wine, or of women, or in the largest pedigalities of
fortune; what she has given me, she may take away, but she shall not tear it from me; and, so long
as it does not grow to me, I can part with it, without pain. He that would perfectly know himself,
let him set aside his money, his fortune, his dignity, and examine himself naked, without being put
to learn from others the knowledge of himself.
It is dangerous for a man too suddenly, or too easily, to believe himself. WHerefore let us
examine, watch, observe, and inspect our own hearts; for we ourselves are our own greatest
flatterers: we should every night call ourselves to account, "What infirmity have I mastered today?
What passion have I oppose? What temptation have I resisted? What virtue have I acquired?"
Our vices will abate of themselves, if they be brought every day to the shrift. Ih the blessed sleep
that follows such a diary!
Nature may use her own bodies as she pleases; but a good man has this consolation, that nothing
perishes which he can call his own.
Nature has made us passive, and to suffer is our lot.
We are born, to lose and to perish, to hope, and to fear, to vex ourselves and others; and there is
no antiidote against a common calamity but virtue; for "the foundation of true joy is in the
conscience."
VII
For what does it mean to be happy, but for a man to contnent himself with his lot, in a cheerful and
quiet resignation to hte appointments of God?
It is the edge and the temper of the blade that makes a good sword, not the richeness of the
scabbard: and so it is not the money of possessions, that make a man considerable, but his
virtue.
There are two republics; a great one, which is human nature, and a less, which is the place where
we were born: some serve both at a time, some only serve the greater, and some again only serve
the less: the greater may be served in privacy, solitude, contemplation, and perchance that way
better than any other; but it was the intent of nature, however, that we should serve
both.
We may enlarge indeed, or contract, accorfing to the circumstances of time, place, or abilities, but,
aboeve all thing, we must be sure to keep ourselves in action; for he that is slothful is dead even
while he lives.
Whensoever he that lent me myself, and what I have, shall call for all back again, it is not a loss,
but a restitution: and I must willingly deliver up what most undeservedly was bestowed upon me;
and it will become me to return my mind better than I received it.
A good man does his duty, let is be never so painful, so hazardous, or never so great a loss to him;
and it is not all the money, the power, and the pleasure in the world; not any force of necessity,
that can make him wicked: he considers what he is to do, not what he is to suffer, and will keep
on his course, though there should be nothing but gibbets and torments in his way.
VIII
Whoever observes the world, and the order of it, will find all the motions in it to be only vicissitude
of falling and rising; nothing extinguished, and even those things which seem to us to perish are in
truth only changed. The seasons go and return, day and night follow in their courses, the heavens
roll, and Nature goes on with her work: all things succeed in their turns, storms and calms; the law
of Nature will have it so, which we must follow and obey, accounting all things that are fone to be
well done: so that what we cannot mend we must suffer, and wait upon Providence without
repining.
Those glories that appear fair to the eye, their lustre is but false and superficial; and they are only
vanity and delusion: they are rather the goods of a drean than a substantial possession: they may
cozen us at a distance, but bring them once to the touch, they are rotten and counterfeit.
What is poverty? No man lives so poor as he was born. What is pain? It will either have an end
itslef, or make and end of us.
It is not possible for us to comprehend what that Power is which has made all thing: some few
sparks of that Divinity are discovered, but infinitely the greater part lies hid. We are all of us,
however, thus far agrred, first, in the acknowledgment and belief of that almighty Being; and,
secondly, that we are to ascribe to it all majesty and goodness.
If I be sick , it is part of my fate; and for other calamities, they are usual things; they ought to be;
nay, which is more, they must be, for they come by divine appointment, So that we should not
only submit to God, but assent to him, and obey him out of duty, even if there were no necessity.
All those terrible appearances that make us graon and tremble are but the tribute of life; we are
neither to wish, nor to ask, nor to hope to escape them; for it is a kind of dishonesty to pay a
tribute unwillingly.
...God chastises some people under an appearance of blessing them, turning their prosperity to
their ruin as a punishment for abusing his goodness.
No man knows his own strength or value but by being put to the proof.
Calamity is the occasion of virtue, and a spur to a great mind.
...the accidents of sickness and of health, are neither good nor evil, God permits them indifferently
both to good and evil men.
If it be the pleasure of God to take my children, I have brought them up to that end: if my fortune,
any part of my bodym or my life, I would rather present than yield it up: I am ready to part with
all, and to suffer all; for I know that nothing comes to pass but what God appoints: or fate is
decreed, and things do not so much happen, as in their due time proceed, and every man's portion
of joy and sorrow is predetermined.
God loves us with a masculine love, and turns us loose to injuries and indignities: he takes delight
to see a brave and a good man wrestling with evil fortune, and yet keeping himself upon his legs,
when the whole world is in disorder about him.
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