not, than thankful for having received all that I need. Nero had this disease, that he was not content with the fortune of the whole empire, but put the fidlers to death for being more skilful in the trade than he was: and Dionysius the elder was so angry at Philoxenus for singing, and with Plato for disputing better than he did, that he sold Plato a slave into Ægina, and condemned the other to the quarries. This consideration is to be enlarged by adding to it, that there are some instances of fortune and a fair condition that cannot stand with some others, but if you desire this, you must lose that, and unless you be content with one, you lose the comfort of both. If you covet learning, you must have leisure and a retired life: if to be a politician, you must go abroad and get experience, and do all businesses, and keep all company, and have no leisure at all. If you will be rich, you must be frugal: if you will be popular, you must be bountiful: if a philosopher, you must despise riches. The Greek that designed to make the most exquisite picture that could be imagined, fancied the eye of Chione, and the hair of Pægnium, and Tarsia's lip, Philenium's chin, and the forehead of Delphia, and set all these upon Melphidippa's neck, and thought that he should out-do both art and nature. But when he came to view the proportions, he found that what was excellent in Tarsia did not agree with the other excellency of Philenium: and although singly they were rare pieces, yet in the whole they made a most ugly face. The dispersed excellencies and blessings of many men, if given to one, would not make a handsome, but a monstrous fortune. Use therefore that faculty which nature hath given thee, and thy education hath made actual, and thy calling hath made a duty. But if thou desirest to be a saint, refuse not his persecution: if thou wouldest be famous as Epaminondas, or Fabricius, accept also of their poverty; for that added lustre to their persons, and envy to their fortune, and their 典 virtue without it could not have been so excellent. Let Euphorion sleep quietly with his old rich wife; and let Medius drink on with Alexander: and remember thou canst not have the riches of the first, unless you have the old wife too; nor the favour which the second had with his Prince, unless you buy it at his price, that is, lay thy sobriety down at first, and thy health a little after; and then their condition, though it look splendidly, yet when you handle it on all sides, it will prick your fingers*. 2. Consider how many excellent personages in all ages have suffered as great or greater calamities than this which now tempts thee to impatience. Agis was the most noble of the Greeks, and yet his wife bore a child by Alcibiades: and Philip was prince of Ituræa, and yet his wife ran away with his brother Herod into Galilee and certainly in a great fortune that was a great calamity but these are but single instances. Al * Prandet Aristoteles quando Philippo lubet Diogenes quando Diogeni. most all the ages of the world have noted that their most eminent scholars were most eminently poor, some by choice, but most by chance, and an inevitable decree of providence. And in the whole sex of women God hath decreed the sharpest pains of childbirth, to shew that there is no state exempt from sorrow, and yet that the weakest persons have strength more than enough to bear the greatest evil: and the greatest Queens, and the mothers of Saints and Apostles, have no character of exemption from this sad sentence. But the Lord of men and Angels was also the King of sufferings, and if thy coarse robe trouble thee, remember the swaddling-cloathes of Jesus; if thy bed be uneasy, yet it is not worse than his manger; and it is no sadness to have a thin table, if thou callest to mind that the King of Heaven and earth was fed with a little breast-milk: and yet besides this he suffered all the sorrows which we deserved. We therefore have great reason to sit down upon our own hearths, and warm ourselves at our own fires, and feed upon content at home: for it were a strange pride to expect to be more gently treated by the Divine Providence than the best and wisest men, than Apostles and Saints, nay, the Son of the Eternal God, the heir of both the Worlds. This consideration may be enlarged by surveying all the states and families of the world*; and he that at once saw Ægina and Magera, Pyreus and Corinth, lie gasping in their ruins, and almost buried in their *Servius Sulpitius. own heaps, had reason to blame Cicero for mourning impatiently the death of one woman. In the most beauteous and splendid fortune there are many cares and proper interruptions and allays: in the fortune of a prince there is not the coarse robe of beggary: but there are infinite cares; and the judge sits upon the tribunal with great ceremony and ostentation of fortune, and yet at his house, or in his breast, there is something that causes him to sigh deeply*. Pittacus was a wise and valiant man, but his wife overthrew the table when he had invited his friends: upon which the good man, to excuse her incivility and his own misfortune, said, that every man had one evil, and he was most happy that had but that alone. And if nothing else happens, yet sicknesses so often do imbitter the fortune and content of a family, that a physician in a few years, and with the practice upon a very few families, gets experience enough to administer to almost all diseases. And when thy little misfortune troubles thee, remember that thou hast known the best of Kings and the best of men put to death publicly by his own subjects. 3. There are many accidents which are esteemed great calamities; and yet we have reason enough to bear them well and unconcernedly; for they neither Hic in foro beatus esse creditur, Cùm foribus apertis sit suis miserrimus ; Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes, Nemo recusat. touch our bodies nor our souls; our health and our virtue remain entire, our life and our reputation. It may be I am slighted, or I have received ill language; but my head aches not for it, neither hath it broke my thigh, nor taken away my virtue, unless I lose my charity or my patience. Enquire therefore what you are the worse, either in your soul, or in your body, for what hath happened: for upon this very stock many evils will disappear, since the body and the soul make up the whole man. And when the daughter of Stilpo proved a wanton, he said, it was none of his sin, and therefore there was no reason it should be his misery*. And if an enemy hath taken all that from a prince whereby he was a King; he may refresh himself by considering all that is left him, whereby he is a man. 4. Consider that sad accidents and a state of affliction is a school of virtue: it reduces our spirits to soberness, and our counsels to moderation; it corrects levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning. It is good for me (said David) that I have been afflicted, for thereby I have learned thy law. And, I know, (O Lord,) that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled. (Psalm. cxix. part 10, v. 3.) For God who in mercy and wisdom governs the World, * Si natus es, Trophime, solus omnium hâc lege Irasceris jure, si malâ is fide Et improbè egisset. Menan. |