He that spends his time well, gives a great example.

in privacy, solitude, contemplation, and perchance, that way better than any other; but it was the intent of nature, however, that we should serve both. A good man may serve the public, his friend, and himself, in any station. If he be not for the sword, let him take the gown; if the bar does not agree with him, let him try the pulpit; if he be silenced abroad, let him give counsel at home, and discharge the part of a faithful friend, and a temperate companion. When he is no longer a citizen, he is yet a man; but the whole world is his country, and human nature never wants matter to work upon: but, if nothing will serve a man in the civil government, unless he be prime minister; or in the field, but to command in chief, it is his own fault. The common soldier, where he cannot use his hands, fights with his looks, his example, his encouragement, his voice, and stands his ground even when he has lost his hands, and does service too with his very clamour: so that in any condition whatsoever, he still discharges the duty of a good patriot. Nay, he that spends his time well, even in a retirement, gives a great example. We may enlarge indeed, or contract, according to the circumstances of time, place, or abilities, but, above all things, we must be sure to keep ourselves in action, for he that is slothful is dead even while he lives. Was there ever any state so desperate as that of Athens under the thirty tyrants, where it was capital to be honest, and the senate-house was turned into a college of hangmen? never was any government so wretched and so hopeless; and yet Socrates at the same time preached temperance to the tyrants, and courage to the rest, and afterwards died an eminent

The injuries of fortune affect not the mind.

example of faith and resolution, and a sacrifice for the common good.

It is not for a wise man to stand shifting and fencing with fortune, but to oppose her barefaced, for he is sufficiently convinced that she can do him no hurt. She may take away his servants, possessions, and dignity; assault his body, put out his eyes, cut off his hands, and strip him of all the external comforts of life. But what does all this amount to, more than the recalling of a trust, which he has received, with condition to deliver it up again upon demand? He looks upon himself as precarious, and only lent to himself, and yet he does not value himself ever the less, because he is not his own, but takes such care, as an honest man should do, of a thing that is committed to him in trust. Whensoever he that lent me myself, and what I have, shall call for all back again, it is not a loss, but a restitution, and I must willingly deliver up what most undeservedly was bestowed upon me. And it will become me to return my mind better than I received it.

Demetrius, upon the taking of Megara, asked Stilpo, the philosopher, what he had lost. "Nothing," says he," for I had all that I could call my own, about me." And yet the enemy had then made himself master of his patrimony, his children, and his country, but these he looked upon only as adventitious goods, and under the command of fortune: now he that neither lost any thing, nor feared any thing, in a public ruin, but was safe and at peace, in the middle of the flames, and in the heat of a military intemperance and fury, what violence, or provocation imaginable, can put such a man as this out of

A brave mind is unmoved by accidents.

the possession of himself? walls and castles may be mined and battered, but there is no art or engine that can subvert a steady mind. "I have made my way," says Stilpo, "through fire and blood; what is become of my children I know not; but these are transitory blessings, and servants that are condemned to change their masters; what was my own before, is my own still. Some have lost their estates, others their dear-bought mistresses, their commissions and offices; the usurers have lost their bonds and securities, but, Demetrius, for my part, I have saved all: and do not imagine, after all this, either that Demetrius is a conqueror, or that Stilpo is overcome; it is only thy fortune has been too hard for mine." Alexander took Babylon, Scipio took Carthage, the capital was burnt, but there is no fire or violence, that can discompose a generous mind: and let us not take this character neither for a chimera, for all ages afford some, though not many instances of this elevated virtue. A good man does his duty, let it be ever so painful, so hazardous, or ever so great a loss to him; and it is not all the money, the power, and the pleasure in the world, no, not any force or necessity that can make him wicked; he considers what he is to do, not what he is to suffer, and will keep on his course, though there should be nothing but gibbets and torments in the way. And in this instance of Stilpo, who, when he had lost his country, his wife, his children, the town on fire over his head, himself escaping very hardly, and naked out of the flames" I have saved all my goods," says he, “my justice, my courage, my temperance, and my prudence:" accounting nothing his own, or valuable, and shewing how much easier it was to overcome a nation than one

Resignation is the part of a generous man.

wise man. It is a certain mark of a brave mind, not to be moved by any accidents. The upper region of the air admits neither clouds nor tempests, the thunder, storms, and meteors, are formed below, and this is a difference betwixt a mean and an exalted mind; the former is rude and tumultuary, the latter is modest, venerable, composed, and always quiet in its station. In brief, it is the conscience that pronounces upon the man, whether he be happy or miserable. But, though sacrilege and adultery be generally condemned, how many are there still that do not so much as blush at the one, and, in truth, glory in the other? For nothing is more common than for great thieves to ride in triumph, when the little ones are punished. But, let wickedness escape as it may at the bar, it never fails of doing justice upon itself; for every guilty person is his own hangman.

THE DUE CONTEMPLATION OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE

IS THE CERTAIN CURE OF ALL MISFORTUNES.

WHOEVER observes the world, and the order of it, will find all the motions in it to be only vicissitude of falling and rising, nothing extinguished, and even those things which seem to us to perish, are in truth but changed. The seasons go and return, day and night follow in their courses, the heavens roll, and nature goes on with her work: all things succeed in their turns, storms and calms; the law of nature will have it so, which we must follow and obey, accounting all things that are done, to be well done: so that what we cannot mend, we must suffer, and wait upon Providence without repining. It is the part of a cowardly soldier to follow

Fortune has no weapon that reaches the mind.

his commander groaning, but a generous man delivers himself up to God without struggling; and it is only for a narrow mind to condemn the order of the world, and to propound rather the mending of nature than of himself. No man has any cause of complaint against Providence, if that which is right pleases him. Those glories that appear fair to the eye, their lustre is but false and superficial, and they are only vanity and delusion: they are rather the goods of a dream, than a substantial possession; they may cozen us at a distance, but bring them once to the touch, they are rotten, and counterfeit. There are no greater wretches in the world, than many of those which the people take to be happy; those are the only true and incorruptible comforts, that will abide all trials, and the more we turn and examine them, the more valuable we find them, and the greatest felicity of all is, not to stand in need of any. What is poverty? No man lives so poor as he was born. What is pain? It will either have an end itself, or make an end of us. In short, fortune has no weapon that reaches the mind; but the bounties of Providence are certain, and permanent blessings, and they are the greater and the better the longer we consider them: that is to say, -the power of contemning things terrible, and despising what the common people covet. In the very methods of nature, we cannot but observe the regard that Providence had to the good of mankind, even in the disposition of the world, in providing so amply for our maintenance and satisfaction. It is not possible for us to comprehend what the power is, which has made all things. Some few sparks of that divinity are discovered, but infinitely the greater part of it lies hid. We are all