A wise man may have his feelings, but still be constant and patient.

Now, to shew you that the virtue which I affect is not so imaginary and extravagant as it is taken to be, I will allow a wise man to tremble, to turn pale, nay, and to groan too, and to suffer all the affections of his bodily sense, provided that he keep his mind firm, and free from submission to his body, and that he do not repent of his constancy, (which is in itself so great a virtue, that there is some authority even in a pertinacious error). If the body be brought by exercise to the contempt of bruises and wounds, how much more easily then may the mind be fortified against the assaults of fortune; and though, perhaps, thrown down and trod upon, yet recover itself? The body must have meat and drink, much labour and practice; whereas the food and the business of the mind is within itself; and virtue maintained without either toil or charge. If you say, that many professors of wisdom are wrought upon by menaces and mischiefs; these, let me tell you, are but proficients, and not as yet arrived at the state of wisdom; they are not strong enough to practise what they know. It is with our dispositions as with our clothes, they will take some colours at one dipping, but others must be steeped over and over, before they will imbibe them. And so for disciplines, they must soak and lie long before they take their tincture. No man can receive an injury, and not be moved at it, but yet he may keep himself free from perturbations; and so far from being troubled at them, that he may make use of them for the experiment and trial of his virtue, keeping himself still moderate, placid, cheerful, and safe, in a profound quiet, and fixed in his station. But if a wise man cannot be poor, how comes it that he is many times without either

Cato both forgave and forgot a blow.

meat, drink, clothes, or lodging? If only fools are mad, how comes it then that wise men have their alienations of mind, and talk as idly in a fever as other people? It is one thing, the receiving of an injury, and another thing, the conceiving of an indignation for it; it is the body in this case that suffers, (which is the fool's part) but not the mind. That man is never the worse pilot, that by foul weather is forced behind his business. When a ship springs a leak, we do not presently quarrel either with the mariners, or with the vessel; but some to the pump, others into the hold, to keep the ship above water. And if we cannot absolutely master it, we must still work on; for it is then a great point gained, if we can but keep it at a stay. Some men are strangely transported at the insolence of the porter, that refuses to let them into a great man's house. They forget that the 'door of a prison is not more strictly guarded than that of a palace. He that has business must pay for his passage, and sweeten him, as he would do a churlish cur with a sop. That which is to be sold, is to be bought: he is a weak man, that rates himself according to the civility of a slave. Let him have a reverence for himself, and then no matter who despises him. What if he should break his staff, or cause his master to turn him away, or to correct him? He that contends, supposes an equality; and even when he has got the better of him, admits that there was one. What if he should receive a blow? Cato (the greatest man of his age) did not only forgive it, but forget it.

It is not to say, that this or that is tolerable to a wise man, or intolerable. If we do not totally subdue fortune, fortune overcomes us. It is the foundation of a

Wisdom and folly.

happy life, for a man to depend upon himself; but an absolute tranquillity of mind, and a freedom from errors, must be the business of another world.

A WISE AND A GOOD MAN IS A PROOF AGAINST ALL ACCIDENTS OF FATE.

THE book you promised me is now come to my hand, and I opened it with an intent to read it over at leisure; but when I was once in, I could not lay it down again, until I had gone through with it. At present, I shall only tell you, that I am exceedingly pleased with the choice of the subject, but I am transported with the spirit and gentleness of it. You shall hear farther from me upon a second reading; and you need not fear the hearing of the truth, for your goodness leaves a man no place for flattery. I find you still to be one and the same man, which is a great matter, and only proper to a wise man; for fools are various, one while thrifty and grave, another while profuse and vain. Happy is the man that sets himself right at first, and continues so to the end. All fools, we say, are madmen, though they are not all of them in Bedlam. We find some at the bar, some upon the bench, and not a few even in the senate itself. One man's folly is sad, another is wanton, and a third is busy and impertinent. A wise man carries all his treasure within himself: what fortune gives, she may take, but he leaves nothing at her mercy. He stands firm, and keeps his ground against all misfortunes, without so much as changing countenance. He is free, inviolable, unshaken, proof against all accidents; and not only invincible, but inflexible. So long

The good are proof against all accidents.

as he cannot lose any thing of his own, he never troubles himself for what is another's. He is a friend to Providence, and will not murmur at any thing that comes to pass by God's appointment. He is not only resolute, but generous and goodnatured, and ready to lay down his life in a good cause, and for the public safety to sacrifice his own. He does not so much consider the pleasure of his life, as the need that the world has of him; and he is not so nice either, as to be weary of his life, while he may either serve his wife, or his friends. Nor is it all, that his life is profitable to them, but it is likewise delightful to himself, and carries its own reward; for what can be more comfortable, than to be so dear to another, as for that very reason to become dearer to himself? If he loses a child, he is pensive; he is compassionate to the sick; and only troubled, when he sees men wallow in infamy and vice. Whereas, on the other side, you shall see nothing but restlessness; one man hankering after his neighbour's wife, another in pain about his own, a third in grief for a repulse, another as much out of humour for his success. If he loses an estate, he parts with it as a thing that was only adventitious; or, if it was of his own acquiring, he computes the possession and loss, and says thus to himselfI shall live as well afterward, as I did before. Our houses, says he, may be burnt, or robbed; our lands taken from us; and we can call nothing our own, that is under the dominion of fortune. It is a foolish avarice, that restrains all things to a propriety, and believes nothing to be a man's own that is public. Whereas a wise man judges nothing so much his own, as that wherein mankind is allowed a share. It is not with the

Prosperity renders adversity grievous.

blessings of Providence, as it is with a dole, where every man receives so much a head, but every man there has all. That which we eat, and either give, or receive, with the hand, may be broken into parts; but peace, and freedom of mind, are not to be divided. He that has first cast off the empire of fortune, needs not fear that of great men, for they are but fortune's hands; nor was ever any man broken by adversity, that was not first betrayed by prosperity. But what signifies philosophy, you will say, if there be a fate; if we be governed by fortune, or some over-ruling power? for certainties are unchangeable, and there is no providing against uncertainties. If what I shall do, and resolve, be determined, what use of philosophy? Yes, great use; for, taking all this for granted, philosophy instructs, and advises us to obey God, and to follow him willingly; to oppose fortune resolutely, and to bear all accidents.

Fate is an irrevocable, an invincible, and an unchangeable decree; a necessity of all things and actions, according to eternal appointment. Like the course of a river, it moves forward without contradiction, or delay, in an irresistible flux, where one wave pushes on another. He knows little of God, that imagines it may be controuled. There is no changing of the purpose even of a wise man; for he sees beforehand what will be the best for the future. How much more unchangeable then is the Almighty, to whom all futurity is always present? To what end then is it, if fate be inexorable, to offer up prayers and sacrifices any farther, than to relieve the scruples and the weakness of sickly minds? My answer is, first, that the gods take no delight in the sacrifices of beasts, or in the images of gold and silver,