Virtue is an invincible greatness of mind.

the felicity of them all is equal. It is in this, as in heavenly bodies, there is a certain state in greatness.

In civil and domestic affairs, a wise man may stand in need of counsel, as of a physician, an advocate, a solicitor, but, in greater matters, the blessing of wise men rests in the joy they take in the communication of their virtues. If there were nothing else in it, a man would apply himself to wisdom, because it settles him in a perpetual tranquillity of mind.

THERE CAN BE

NO

HAPPINESS WITHOUT

VIRTUE.

VIRTUE is that perfect good which is the complement of a happy life, the only immortal thing that belongs to immortality; it is the knowledge both of others and itself, it is an invincible greatness of mind, not to be elevated or dejected with good or ill fortune. It is sociable and gentle, free, steady, and fearless, content within itself, full of inexhaustible delights, and it is valued for itself. One may be a good physician, a good governor, a good grammarian, without being a good man; so that all things from without are only accessaries, for the seat of it is a pure and holy mind. It consists in a congruity of actions, which we can never expect, so long as we are distracted by our passions. Not but that a man may be allowed to

Virtue soars above difficulties.

change colour and countenance, and suffer such impressions as are properly a kind of natural force upon the body, and not under the dominion of the mind: but all this while I will have his judgment firm, and he shall act steadily and boldly, without wavering betwixt the motions of his body and those of his mind. It is not a thing indifferent, I know, whether a man lies at ease upon a bed, or in torment upon a wheel: and yet the former may be the worse of the two, if we suffer the latter with honour, and enjoy the other with infamy. It is not the matter, but the virtue, that makes the action good or ill; and he that is led in triumph may yet be greater than his conqueror. When we come once to value our flesh above our honesty, we are lost: and yet I would not press upon dangers, no not so much as upon inconvenience, unless where the man and the brute come in competition; and, in such a case, rather than make a forfeiture of my credit, my reason, or my faith, I would run all extremities. They are great blessings to have tender parents, dutiful children, and to live under a just and well-ordered government. Now, would it not trouble even a virtuous man, to see his children butchered before his eyes, his father made a slave, and his country over-run by a barbarous enemy? There is a great difference betwixt the simple loss of a blessing, and the succeeding of a great mischief into the place of

Her glories are not to be obscured.

it over and above. The loss of health is followed with sickness, and the loss of sight with blindness, but this does not hold in the loss of friends and children, where there is rather something to the contrary to supply that loss; that is to say, virtue, which fills the mind, and takes away the desire of what we have not. What matters it whether the water be stopt or no, so long as the fountain is safe? Is a man ever the wiser for a multitude of friends, or the more foolish for the loss of them? So neither is he the happier, nor the more miserable. Short life, grief and pain, are accessions that have no effect at all upon virtue. It consists in the action, and not in the things we do; in the choice itself, and not in the subject matter of it. It is not a despicable body, or condition, not poverty, infamy, or scandal, that can obscure the glories of virtue; but a man may see her through all oppositions, and he that looks diligently into the state of a wicked man, will see the canker at his heart, through all the false and dazzling splendors of greatness and fortune. We shall then discover our childishness, in setting our hearts upon things trivial and contemptible, and in the selling of our very country and parents for a rattle. And what is the difference (in effect) betwixt old men and children, but that the one deals in paintings and statues, and the other in babies? So that we ourselves are only the more expensive fools.

The dignity of virtue.

If one could but see the mind of a good man, as it is illustrated with virtue, the beauty and the majesty of it, which is a dignity not so much as to be thought of without love and veneration, would not a man bless himself at the sight of such an object, as at the encounter of some supernatural power? A power so miraculous, that it is a kind of charm upon the souls of those that are truly affected with it. There is so wonderful a grace and authority in it, that even the worst of men approve it, and set up for the reputation of being accounted virtuous themselves. They covet the fruit indeed, and the profit of wickedness, but they hate, and are ashamed of the imputation of it. It is by an impression of nature, that all men have a reverence for virtue: they know it, and they have a respect for it, though they do not practise it; nay, for the countenance of their very wickedness, they miscal it virtue. Their injuries they call benefits, and expect a man should thank them for doing him a mischief; they cover their most notorious iniquities with a pretext of justice. He that robs upon the highway, had rather find his booty than force it. Ask any of them that live upon rapine, fraud, and oppression, if they had not rather enjoy a fortune honestly gotten, and their consciences will not suffer them to deny it. Men are vicious only for the profit of villainy; for at the same time that they commit it, they

Which overcomes ill fortune, and moderates good.

condemn it. Nay, so powerful is virtue, and so gracious is Providence, that every man has a light set up within him for a guide, which we do all of us both see and acknowledge, though we do not pursue it. This is it that makes the prisoner upon the torture happier than the executioner, and sickness better than health, if we bear it without yielding or repining: this is that which overcomes ill fortune, and moderates good; for it marches betwixt the one and the other, with an equal contempt of both. It turns (like fire) all things into itself, our actions and our friendships are tinctured with it, and whatever it touches becomes amiable. That which is frail and mortal rises and falls, grows, wastes, and varies from itself, but the state of things divine is always the same; and so is virtue, let the matter be what it will. It is never the worse for the difficulty of the action, nor the better for the easiness of it. It is the same in a rich man as in a poor, in the sickly man as in a sound, in a strong as in a weak; the virtue of the besieged is as great as that of the besiegers. There are some virtues, I confess, which a good man cannot be without, and yet he had rather have no occasion to employ them. If there were any difference, I should prefer the virtues of patience before those of pleasure; for it is braver to break through difficulties, than to temper our delights. But, though the subject of virtue may possibly be