XVI
The whole duty of man may be reduced to the two points of abstinence and patience;
temperance in prosperity, and courage in adversity.
He that lies with his own wife, and takes her for another woman, though the woman be
honest, the man is an adulterer. Suppose a man gives me a draughter of poison, and it
proves not strong enough to kill me, his guilt is never the less for the
disappointment.
It is the intention, not the effect, that makes the wickedness. He is a thief that has the will of
killing and slaying, before his hand is dipt in blood; as it is sacrilege, the very intention of
laying vioilent hands upon holy things. If a philosopher be exposed to torments, the axe
over his head, his body wounded, his guts in his hands, I will allow him to groan; for virtue
itself cannot divest him of the nature of a man; but if his mind stand firm, he has discharge his
part. A great mind enables a man to maintain his station with honor...
For, it is an equal prudence, to make the best of a bad game, and to manage a good
one.
We must not judge of a man by his ornaments, but strip him of all the advantages and the
impostures of Fortune, nay, of his very body too, and look into his mind.
Not that I pretend to exempt a wise man out of the number of men, as if he had no sense of
pain; but I reckon him as compounded of body and soul: the body is irrational, and may be
galled, burnt, tortured; but the rational part is fearless, invincible, and not to be
shaken.
...whatsoever may be will be.
Whatsoever is necessary, we must bear patiently. It is no new thing to die, no new thing to
mourn, and no new thing to be merry again.
[A man of exact judgment] If Fortune should have offered that man the government and the
possession of the whole world, upon condition not to lay it down again, I dare say he
would have refused it: and thus have expostulated the matter with you; "Why should you
tempt a freeman to put his shoulder under a burden; or an honest man to pollute himself with
the dregs of mankind? Why do you offer me the spoils of princes, and of nations, and the
price not only of your blood, but of your souls?" It is the part of a great mind to be
temperate in prosperity, resolute in adversity; to despise what the vulgar admire, and to
prefer a mediocrity to an excess.
They lie in wait for advantages, and live in perpetual agitation betwixt hope and fear;
whereas he that is truly composed will stand all shocks, either of violences, flatteries, or
menaces, without purturbation.
It is an error to attribute either good or ill to Fortune; but the matter of it we may; and we
ourselves are the occasion of it, being in effect the artificers of our own happiness or misery;
for the mind is above fortune; if that be evil, it makes everything else so too; but if it be right
and sincere, it corrects what is wrong, and molifies what is hard, with modesty and
courage.
He that has a great way to go must expect a slip, to stumble, and to be tired. To the
luxurious man frugality is a punishment; labor and industry to the sluggard; nay, study itself is
a torment to him: not that these things are hard to us by nature, but we ourselvs are vain and
irresolute: nay, we wonder many of us, how any man can live without wine, or endure to
rise so early in a morning.
That which is most eminent is patience, (which is but a branch of fortitude.) But there is
prudence also in the choices of the action, and in the bearing what we cannot avoid; and
there is constancy in bearing it resolutely; and there is the same concurrence also of several
virtue in other generous undertakings.
Some are of opinion, that death gives a man courage to support pain, and that pain fortifies
a man against death: but I say rather, that a wise man depends upon himself against both,
and that he does not either suffer with patience, in hopes of death, or die willingly, because
he is weary of life; but bears the one, and waits for the other, and carries a divine mind
through all the accidents of human life. He looks upon faith and honesty as the most sacred
good of mankind, and neither to be forced by necessity nor corrupted by reward; kill, burn,
tear him in pieces, he will be true to his trust: and the more any man labors to make him
discover a secret, the deeper will he hide it.
"He is the happy man that is the master of himself, and triumphs over the fear of death,
which has overcome the conquerors of the world."
XVII
The comfort of life depends upon conversation. Good offices, and concord, and human
society, is like the working of an arch of stone; all would fall to the ground if one piece did
not support another.
We are to relieve the distressed; to put the wanderer into his way; and to divide our bread
with the hungry: which is but the doing of good to ourselves; for we are only several
members of one great body.
We are all of a consanguity (the same blood), formed of the same materials, and designed to
the same end; this obliges us to mutual tenderness and converse; and the other, to live with
a regard for equity and justice. The love of society is natural; but the choice of our company
is a matter of cirtue and prudence. Noble examples stir us up to noble actions; and the very
history of large and public souls, inspires a man with generous thoughts.
He that converses with the proud shall be puffed up, a lustful acquaintance makes aman
lascivious; and the way to secure a man from wickedness is to withdraw from the examples
of it.
A rocky ground hardens the horse's hoof; the mountaineer makes the best soldier, the miner
makes the best pioneer, and severity of discipline fortifies the mind. In all excesses and
extremities of good and ill fortune, let us have recourse to great examples that have
contemned both.
He that has to do with an enemy in his breast, has a harder atask upon him than he that is to
encounter one in the field: his hazard is greater if he loses ground, and his duty is purpetual;
for he has no place or time for rest. If I give way to pleasure, I must also yield to grief, to
poverty, tolabor, ambition, andger, until I am torn to pieces by misfortunes and lusts. But
against all this, philosophy propounds a liberty, that is to say, a liberty form the service of
accidents and fortune.
I will take more care with whom I eat and drink than what; for without a friend, the table is
a manger.
Now, though it be by instinct that we covet society, and avoid solitude, we should yet take
this along with us, that the more acquaintance the more danger. Nay, ther is not one man of
a hundred that is to be trusted with himself.
Especially let us have a care of public spectacles where wickedness insinuates itself with
pleasure; and , above all others, let us avoid spectacles of cruelty and blood; and have
nothing to so with those that are perpetually whining and complaining; there may be faith and
kindness there, but no peace.
XVIII
Of all felicities, the most charming is that of a frim and gentle friendship.
But we are not yet to number our friends by the visits that are made us; and to confound the
decensies of ceremony and commerce with the offices of united affections.
The great difficulty rests in the choices of him: that is to say, i the first place, let him be
virtuous, for vice is contagious, and there is no trusting of the sound and the stick together;
and he ought to be a wise man too, if a body knew where to find him; but in this case, he
that is least ill is best, and the highest degree of human prudence is only the most venial folly.
That friendship where men's affections are cemented by an equal and by a common move of
goodness, it is not either hope of fear, or any private interest, that can ever dissolve it; but
we carry it with us to our graves, and lay down lives for it with satisfaction.
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