Chap. XIV. are the fame thing to us, that Goblins are to Children: We are more scared with them, than hurt, We take up our Opinions upon Truft, and err for Company, ftill judging that to be beft, that has moft Competitors. We make a falfe Calculation of Matters, becaufe we advife with Opinion, and not with Nature: and this maif-leads us to a higher Efteem for Riches, Honour, and Power, than they are worth: We have been ufed to admire, and recommend them, and a private Error is quickly turned into a public. The greatest and the fmallest things are equally hard to be comprehended; we account many things great, for want of understanding what effectually is fo: And we reckon other things to be fmall, which we find frequently to be of the highest Value. Vain Things only move vain Minds; the Accidents that we so much boggle at, are not terrible in themselves, but they are made fo by our Infirmities; but we confult rather what we hear than what we feel, without examining, oppofing, or difcuffing Things we fear; fo that we either ftand ftill and tremble, or elfe directly run for't; as thofe Troops did, that upon the Raifing of the Duft, took a Flock of Sheep for the Enemy. When the Body and Mind are corrupted, 'tis no Wonder if all things prove intolerable; and not because they are fo in Truth, but because we are diffolute, and foolish: For, we are infa tuated to fuch a Degree, that betwixt the common Mad. nefs of Men, and that which falls under the Care of the Phyfician, there is but this Difference; the one labours of a Difeafe, and the other of a falfe Opinion.

Let every Man make the beft of his Lot.

THE Stocks hold, that all those Torments that commonly draw from us Groans, and Ejaculations, are in themfelves trivial, and contemptible. But thefe high flown Expreffions apart, (how true foever) let us dif courfe the Point, at the Rate of ordinary Men, and not make ourfelves miferable before our time; for the things we apprehend to be at hand, may poffibly never come to pafs. Some things trouble us more than they fhould, other things fooner; and fome things again diforder us, that ought trouble us at all: So that we either enlarge, or anticipate our Difquiets. For the first Part, let it reft

not to

or create,

as a Matter in Controverfy, for that which I account light, another perhaps will judge infupportable; one Man laughs under the Lah, and another whines for a Philip. How fad a Calamity is Poverty to one Man, which to another appears rather defirable, than incon, venient? For the poor Man who has nothing to lofe, 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 fo. Some People are extremely dejected with Sickness, and Pain: whereas Epicurus bleffed his Fate with his laft Breath, in the acutelt Torments of the Stone imaginable. And fo for Banishment, which to one Man is fo grievous, and yet to another is no more than a bare Change of Place: A thing that we do every Day, for our Health, Pleafure;, nay, and upon the account even of common Bufinefs. How terrible is Death to one Man, which to another appears the greatest Providence in Nature; even towards all Ages and Conditions? It is the Wifh of fome, the Relief of many, and the End of all, It fets the Slave at Liberty, carries the banished Man home, and places all Mortals upon the fame Level: Infomuch that Life itself were punithed without .it.

When I fee Tyrants, Tortures, Violences, the Profpect of Death is a Confolation to me, and the only Remedy against the Injuries of Life.

Our very Pray

ers many times

are Curjes.

NAY, fo great are our Miftakes in the true Eftimate of Things, that we have hardly done any thing that we have not had Reason to wish undone, and we have found the things we feared to be more defirable than those we coveted: Our very Prayers have bɩen, more pernicious than the Curfes of our Enemies; and we must pray again to have our former. Prayers. forgiven, Where's the wife. Man, that wilhes to himfelf the Withes of his Mother, Nurfe, or Tutor, the worst of Enemies, with the Intention of the best of Friends? We are undone if their Prayers be heard; and it is our Duty to pray that they may not; for they are no other than well meaning Execrations. They take Evil for: Good; and one Wifh fights with another: Give me rather the Contempt of all thofe Things whereof they wish me the greatest Plenty. We are equally hurt by fome

↑ We are vain and wicked, and will not believe

it.

go

Chap. XIV. that pray for us, and by others that curfe us: The one imprints in us a falfe Fear, and the other does us Mif. chief by a Mistake. So that it is no Wonder if Mankind be miferable, when we are brought up from the very Cradle under the Imprecations of our Parents. We pray for Trifles, without so much as thinking of the greatest Bleffings; and we are not afhamed many times to afk God for that which we should blush to own to our Neighbour. IT is with us, as with an Innocent+ that my Father had in his Family. She fell blind on a fudden, and so body could perfuade her she was blind. She could not endure the Houfe, he cry'd it was fo dark, and was still calling to abroad. That which we laughed at in her, we find to be true in ourselves, we are covetous and ambitious; but the World fhall never bring us to acknowledge it, and we impute it to the Place: Nay, we are the worfe of the two; for the 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 are fick. We are afhamed to admit a Master, and we are too old to learn. Vice ftill goes before Virtue; fo that we have two Works to do; we must cast off the one, and learn the other. By one Evil we make way to another, and only feek things to be avoided, or thofe of which we are foon weary. That which feemed too much when we wished for it, proves too little when we have it; and it is not as fome imagine, that Felicity is greedy; but it is little, and narrow, and cannot fatisfy us. That which we take to be very high at a Distance, we find it to be but low, when we come at it. And the Bufinefs is, we do not underftand the true State of things: We are deceived by Runours; when we have gained the thing we aimed at, we find it to be either ill or empty; or perchance less than we expect, or otherwife perhaps great, but not good.

CHAP. XV.

The Bleffings of Temperance and Moderation.

HERE is not any thing that is neceffary to us, but we have it cheap or gratis; and this is the Provifion that our heavenly Father has made for us, whose Bounty was never wanting to our Needs. It is true, the Belly craves, and calls upon us, but then a fmall matter contents it: A little Bread and Water is fufficient, and all the relt is fuperfluous. He that lives according to Reafon, fhall never be poor; and he that governs his Life by Opinion fhall never be rich; for Nature is limited, but Fancy is boundlefs. As for Meat, Cloaths, and Lodging, a little feeds the Body, and as little covers it; fo that if Mankind would only attend human Nature, without gaping at Superfluities, a Cook would be found as needlets as a Soldier: For we may have Neceffaries upon very eafy Terms; whereas we put ourfelves to great Pains for Exceffes. When we are cold, we may cover ourselves withr Skins of Beasts, and against violent fleats, we have natural Grotto's; or with a few Ofiers, and a little Clay, we may defend ourfelves against all Seafons. Providence has been kinder to us than to leave us to live by our Wits, and to stand in need of Invention and Arts: It is only Pride and Curiofity that involves us in Difficulties: If nothing will ferve a Man but rich Cloaths, and Furniture; Statues and Plate; a numerous Train of Servants, and the Rarities of all Nations; 'it is not Fortune's Fault, but his own, that he is not fatisfied: For his Defires are infatiable, and this is not a Thirst, but a Difeafe; and if he were Mafter of the whole World, he would be ftill a Beggar. It is the Mind that makes us rich and happy, in what Condition foever we are; and Money fignifies no more to it than it does to the Gods: If the Religion be fincere, no matter for the Ornaments: 'Tis only Luxury and Avarice that makes Poverty grievous to us; for it is a very fmall

matter that does our Business; and when we have provided against Cold, Hunger and Thirft, all the reft is but Vanity and Excefs: And there's no need of Expence upon foreign Delicacies, or the Artifices of the Kitchen. What is he the worfe for Poverty, that defpifes these things: Nay, is he not rather the better for it, because he is not able to go to the Price of them? For he is kept found whether he will or no: And that which a Man can not do, looks many times as if he would not.

*The Moderati

on of pall Ages.

WHEN I look back into the * Mo deration of paft Ages, it makes me afhamed to difcourfe, as if Poverty had need of any Confolation; for we are now cone to that Degree of Intemperance, that a fair Patrimony is too little for a Meal. Homer had but one Servant, Plato three; and Zeno (the Mafter of the maf culine Sect of Stricks) had none at all. The Daughters of Scipio had their Portions out of the common Treafury, for their Father left them not worth a Penny: How happy were their Husbands that had the People of Rome for their Father-in Law? Shall any Man now contemn Poverty after these eminent Examples; which are fufficient not only to juftify, but to recommend it? Upon Diogenes's only Servant's running away from him, he was told where he was, and perfwaded to fetch him back a gain. What, fays he, can Mares live without Diogenes,and Diogenes not without Manes? and fo let him go. The Piety and Moderation of Scipio has made his Memory more valuable than his Arms; and more yet after he left his Country, than while he defended it: For mat ters were come to that pafs, that either. Scipio mult be injurious to Rem, or Rome to Scipio. Coarfe Bread, and Water, to a temperate Man. is as good as a Feaft; and the very Herbs of the Field yield a. Nourishment to Man, as well as to Beafts. It was not by choice Meats, and Perfumes, that our Forefathers recommended them. felves, but in virtuous Actions, and the Sweat of honest, military, and of manly Labours.

and

WHILE Nature lay in common, The State of all her Benefits were promifcuoully enjoyed, what could be happier than the State of Mankind, when People liv

Innocence.