It is a foolish thing to be miserable beforehand for fear of misery to
come; for a man loses the
present, which he might enjoy, in expectation of the future: nay, the
fear of losing anything is as bad
as the loss itself. I will be as prudent as I can, but not timourous or
careless; I will bethink myself,
and forecast what inconveniences may happen before they come.
It is a shameful and an unmanly thing to be doubrful, timourous, and
uncertain; to st one step
forward, and another backward; and to be irresolute. Can there be any
man so fearful, that had
not rather fall once than hang always in suspense?
Our miseries are endless if we stand in fear of all possibilities; the
best way, in such a case, is to
drive out, one nail with another, and a little to qualify fear with hope;
which may not serve to
palliate a misfortune, though not to cure it.
It is time enough to lament when it comes, and, in the interim, to
promise ourselves the
best.
Why should I torment myself at present with what perhaps, may fall out
fifty years jence? This
humor is a kind of voluntary disease, and an industrious contrivance or
our own unhappiness, to
complainof an affliction that we do not feel.
If we stand in fear of violence from a powerful enemy, it is some comfort
to us, that whosoever
makes himself terrible to others is not without fear himself; the least
noise makes a lion startl and
the fiercest of beasts, whatsoever enrages them, makes them tremble too:
a shadow, a voice, an
unusual odor, rouses them.
XIV
Pains, and other violences of Fortune, are the same thing to us that
goblins are to children: we are
more scared with them than hurt.
Vain things only move vain minds.
The Stoics hold, that all those torments that commonly draw from us
groans and ejaculations, are
in themselves trivial and contemptible.
For the poor man, who has nothing to lose, has nothing to fear: and he
that would enjoy himself to
the satisfaction of his soul, must be either poor indeed, or at least
look as if he were so.
Our very prayers have been more pernicious than the curses of our
enemies; and we must pray
again to have our former prayers forgiven.
That which we laughed at in her we find to be true in ourselves, we are
covetous and ambitious;
but the world shall never bring us to acknowledge it, and we impute it to
the place; nay, we are the
worse of the two; for that blind fool called for a guide, and we wander
about without one. It is a
hard matter to cure those that will not believe they ar sick.
Vice still goes before virtue: so that wer have two works to do: we
must cast off the one, and
learn the other.
XV
Ther is not anything that is necessary to us but we have it either cheap
or gratis: and this is the
provision that our heavenly father has made for us, whose bounty was
never wanting our needs. It
is true the belly craves and calls upon us, but then a small matter
contents it: a little breas and
water is sufficient, and all the rest is but superfluous. He that lives
according to reason shall never
be ppor, and he that governs his life by opinion shall never be rich; for
nature is limited, but fancy is
boundless. As for meat, clothes, and lodging, a little feed the body,
and as little covers it.... for
we may have necessaries upon very easy terms; whereas we put ourselves to
great pains for
excesses.
It is only pride and curiosity tht involves us in difficulties: if
nothing will serve a man but rich
clothes and furniture, statues and plate, a numerous train of servants,
and the rarities of all nations,
it is not Fortunes's fault, but his own, that he is not satisfied; for
his desires are insatiable, and this is
not a thirst, but a disease; and if he were master of the whole world,
he would be still a beggar. It
is the mind that makes us rich and happy, in what condition soever we
are; and money signifies no
more to it than it does to the gods.
So long as men contented themselves with their lot, there was no
violence, no engrossing or
hinding of those benefits for particular advantages, which were appointed
for the community; but
every man had as much care for his neighbor as for himself.
...Nature does not give virtue; and it is a kind of art to become
good.
But, after all this, they were innocent because they were ignoratn; and
there is a great difference
betwixt not knowing how to offend and not being willing to do it.
It is we ourselves that have drawn out of the earth both the causes and
the instruments of our
dangers: and we are so vain as to set the highest esttem upon those
things to whic Nature has
assigned the lowest place.
Happy is that man that eat only for humger, and drinks only for thirst;
that stands upon his own
legs, and lives by reason, not by example; and provides for use and
necessity, not for ostentation
and pomp. Let us curb our appetites, encourage virtue, and rathrer be
beholden to ourselves for
riches than to Fortune, who, when a man draws himself into a narrow
compass, has the least mark
at him. Let my bed be plain and clean, and my clothes so too: my meat
without much expense, or
many waiters, and neither a burden to my purse nor to my body, not to go
out the same way it
came in. That which is too little for luxury, is abundantly enough for
nature.
If I do not live as I preach, take notice that I do not speak of myself,
but of virtue, nor am I so
much offended with other men's vices as with my own.
We are ready enough to limit others, but loth to put bounds and
restraints upon ourselves; though
we know that many times a greater evil is cured by a less; and the mind
that will not be brought to
virtue by precepts, comes frequently by necessity.
A well-governed appetite is a great part of liberty;...
It is the office of Temperance to over-rule us in our pleasures:
...
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