little but it is of Force enough to bring us to our Last End Nay so far should we be from dreading an Eminent Fate more than a Vulgar that on the Contrary since Dye we must we should rather Rejoyce in the Breathing of our Last under a more Glorious Circumstance What if the Ground stand still within its bounds and without any Violence I shall have it over me at Last and 't is all one to me whether I be laid under That or That layes it Self over me But it is a Terrible thing for the Earth to gape and swallow a Man up into a Profound Abyss And what then Is Death any Easier Above Ground What cause have I of Complaint if Nature will do me the honor to Cover me with a Part of her Self Since we must Fall there is a Dignity in the very Manner of it when the World it self is Shock'd for Company Not that I would wish for a Publick Calamity but it is some Satisfaction in my Death that I see the World also to be Mortal Neither are we to take these Extraordinary Revolutions for Divine Judgments as if such Motions of the Heavens and of the Earth were the Denouncings of the VVrath of the Allmighty but they have their Ordinate and their Natural Causes Such as in Proportion we have in our own Bodies and while they seem to Act a Violence they Suffer it But yet for want of knowing the Causes of things they are Dreadful to us and the more so because they happen but seldome But why are we commonly more Afraid of that which we are not Us'd to Because we look upon Nature with our Eyes not with our Reason Rather Computing what she Usually Does than what she is Able to do And we are Punish'd for this Negligence by taking those things to which we are not VVonted to be New and Prodigious The Eclipses of the Sun and Moon Blazing Stars and Meteors while we Admire them we Fear them and since we Fear them because we do not Understand them it is worth our while to Study them that we may no longer Fear them VVhy should I fear a Man a Beast an Arrow or a Lance when I am expos'd to the Encounter of Greater Dangers We are Assaulted by the Nobler parts of Nature it self by the Heavens by the Seas and the Land Our Business is therefore to Defy Death whether Extraordinary or Common No matter for the Menaces of it so long as it Asks no more of us than Age it self will take from us and every petty Accident that befalls us He that Contemns Death What does he Care for either Fire or Water the very Dissolution of the Universe or if the Earth should Open Under him and shew him all the Secrets of the Infernal Pit He would look Down without Trouble In the Place that we are all of us to go to there are no Earthquakes or Thunder-Claps no Tempestuous Seas Neither War nor Pestilence Is it a Small Matter Why do we fear it then Is it a Great Matter Let it rather once fall upon us then always hang over us Why should I dread my Own End when I know that an End I must have and that all Created things are Limited EPIST. XXIV A Discourse of Gods Providence in the Misfortunes of Good Men in this World and in the Prosperity of the Wicked YOu are troubled I perceive that your Servant is run away from you but I do not hear yet that you are either Robb'd or Strangl'd or Poyson'd or Betray'd or Accus'd by him So that you have scap'd well in Comparison with your Fellows And Why should you complain then especially under the Protection of so gracious a Providence as suffers no Man to be miserable but by his own Fault Nor is this a Subject worthy of a wise Mans Consideration Adversity indeed is a terrible thing in Sound and Opinion and that 's all Some Men are Banish'd and strip'd of their Estates Others again are Poor in Plenty which is the basest sort of Beggery Some are overborn by a Popular Tumult that breaks out like a Tempest even in the highest security of a Calm Or like a Thunder-Clap that frights all that are near it There is but One Struck perhaps but the Fear extends to all and affects those that May Suffer as well as those that Doe As in the Discharge of a Piece only with Powder 'T is not the Stroke but the Crack that frights the Birds Adversity I 'll grant you is not a thing to be wish'd no more than War but if it be my Lot to be Torn with the Stone Broken upon the Wheel or to receive Wounds or Maims It shall be my Prayer that I may bear my Fortune as becomes a Wise and an Honest Man We do not Pray for Tortures but for Patience nor for War but for Generosity and Courage in all the Extremities of War if it happens Afflictions are but the Exercise of Virtue and an Honest Man is out of his Element when he is Idle It must be Practice and Patience that Perfects it Do we not see see how one Wrestler provokes another And if he find him not to be his Match he will call for some Body to help him that may put him to all his strength It is a Common Argument against the Justice of Providence in the matter of Reward and Punishment the Misfortunes of Good Men in this World and the Prosperity of the Wicked But it is an easie matter to vindicate the Cause of the Gods There are many things that we call Evil which turn very often to the Advantage of those that suffer them or at least for the Common Good whereof Providence has the greater Care And further they either befall those that bear them willingly or those that deserve them by their Impatience under them And Lastly they come by Divine Appointment and to those that are Good Men even for that very Reason because they are Good Nor is there any thing more Ordinary than for that which we fear'd as a Calamity to prove the Foundation of our Happiness How many are there in the World that enjoy all things to their Own Wish whom God never thought worthy of a Tryal If it might be imagin'd that the Allmighty should take off his Thought from the Care of his Whole Work What more Glorious Spectacle could he reflect upon than a Valiant Man Struggling with Adverse Fortune Or Cato's Standing Upright and Unmov'd under the Shock of a Publick Ruin Let the Whole World sayes he fall into one hand and let Caesar encompass me with his Legions by Land his Shipping at Sea and his Guards at the Gates Cato will yet cut out his way and with That Weapon that was untainted even in the Civil VVar give himself that Liberty which Fate deny'd to his Country Set upon the great VVork then and deliver thy self from the Clog of thy Humanity Juba and Petreius have already done the good office One for the Other
Contrary that it is the greater because the good will cannot be chang'd 'T is one thing to say That a Man could not but do me this or that Civility because he was forc'd to 't and another thing That he could not quit the good Will of doing it In the former Case I am a Debtor to him that impos'd the force in the other to himself An Unchangeable good Will is an indispensable Obligation and to say that Nature cannot go out of her Course does not discharge us of what we owe to Providence Shall he be said to Will that may change his Mind the next moment And Shall we question the Will of the Almighty whose Nature admits no change Must the Stars quit their Stations and fall foul one upon another Must the Sun stand still in the middle of his Course and Heaven and Earth drop into a Confusion Must a devouring Fire seize upon the Universe the Harmony of the Creation be dissolv'd and the whole Frame of Nature swallow'd up in a dark Abysse and Will nothing less than this serve to convince the VVorld of their audacious and impertinent Follies It is not to say that These Heavenly Bodies are not made for us for in part they are so and we are the better for their Virtues and Motions whether we will or no though undoubtedly the Principal Cause is the unalterable Law of God Providence is not mov'd by any thing from without but the Divine VVill is an Everlasting Law an Immutable Decree and the Impossibility of Variation proceeds from God's purpose of persevering for he never repents of his first Counsels It is not with our Heavenly as with our Earthly Father God thought of us and provided for us before he made us for unto him all future events are present Man was not the VVork of Chance his Mind carries him above the flight of Fortune and naturally aspires to the Contemplation of Heaven and Divine Mysteries How desperate a Phrensy is it now to undervalue nay to contemn and to disclaim these Divine Blessings without which we were utterly incapable of enjoying any other CHAP. IX An Honest Man cannot be Out-done in Courtesie IT passes in the World for a Generous and a Magnificent saying that ' T is a shame for a Man to be out-done in Courtesie And it 's worth the while to examine both the Truth of it and the Mistake First there can be no shame in a Virtuous Emulation and Secondly there can be no Victory without crossing the Cudgels and yielding the Cause One Man may have the Advantages of Strength of Meanes of Fortune and this will undoubtedly operate upon the Events of good Purposes but yet without any diminution to the Virtue The good Will may be the same in Both and yet One may have the Heels of the Other For it is not in a good Office as in a Course where he wins the Plate that comes first to the Post And even there also Chance has many times a great hand in the Success Where the Contest is about Benefits and that the One has not only a Good Will but Matter to work upon and a Power to put that Good Intent in Execution And the Other has barely a Good Will without either the Meanes or the Occasion of a Requital if he does but affectionately wish it and endeavour it the latter is no more Overcome in Courtesie than he is in Courage that dies with his Sword in his Hand and his Face to the Enemy and without Shrinking maintains his Station For where Fortune is Partial 'T is enough that the Good Will is Equal There are two Errors in this Proposition First to imply that a good Man may be Overcome and then to imagine that any thing Shameful can befall him The Spartans prohibited all those Exercises where the Victory was declar'd by the Confession of the Contendent The 300 Fabii were never said to be Conquer'd but Slain nor Regulus to be Overcome though he was taken Prisoner by the Carthaginians The Mind may stand firm under the greatest Malice and Iniquity of Fortune and yet the Giver and the Receiver continue upon equal Termes As we reckon it a drawn Battel when two Combatants are parted though the One has lost more Blood than the Other He that knowes how to Owe a Courtesie and heartily wishes that he could Requite it is Invincible So that every Man may be as Grateful as he pleases 'T is Your Happiness to Give 't is My Fortune that I can only Receive What advantage now has your Chance over my Virtue But there are some Men that have Philosophiz'd themselves almost out of the sense of Humane Affections as Diogenes that walk'd Naked and Unconcern'd through the middle of Alexanders Treasures and was as well in other Mens Opinions as in his Own even above Alexander himself who at that time had the whole World at his Feet for there was more that the One scorn'd to Take than that the Other had in his Power to Give And it is a greater Generosity for a Beggar to Refuse Money than for a Prince to Bestow it This is a remarkable Instance of an immoveable Mind and there 's hardly any contending with it but a Man is never the less valiant for being worsted by an Invulnerable Enemy nor the Fire one jote the weaker for not consuming an Incombustible Body nor a Sword ever a whit the worse for not cleaving a Rock that is impenetrable neither is a Grateful Mind overcome for want of an Answerable Fortune No matter for the Inequality of the things Given and Received so long as in point of good Affection the two Parties stand upon the same Level 'T is no Shame not to overtake a man if we follow him as fast as we can That Tumor of a Man the Vainglorious Alexander was us'd to make his Boast that never any man went beyond him in Benefits and yet he liv'd to see a poor fellow in a Tub to whom there was nothing that he could Give and from whom there was nothing that he could take away NOR is it always necessary for a poor Man to fly to the Sanctuary of an Invincible Mind to quit scores with the Bounties of a Plentiful Fortune but it does often fall out that the Returns which he cannot make in kind are more than supply'd in dignity and value Archelaus a King of Macedon invited Socrates to his Palace but he excus'd himself as unwilling to Receive greater Benefits than he was able to Requite This perhaps was not Pride in Socrates but Craft for he was afraid of being forc'd to accept of something which possibly might have been unworthy of him beside that he was a Man of Liberty and loth to make himself a voluntary Slave The truth of it is that Archelaus had more need of Socrates than Socrates of Archelaus for he wanted a Man to teach him the Art of Life and Death and the Skill of Government to Read the Book of
only of Madness but many times an irrevocable transition into the thing it self How many persons have we known read and heard of that have lost their Wits in a Passion and never came to themselves again It is therefore to be avoided not only for Moderation sake but also for Health Now if the outward appearance of Anger be so foul and hideous How deformed must that miserable Mind be that is harrass'd with it for it leaves no place either for Counsel or Friendship Honesty or Good Manners No place either for the Exercise of Reason or for the Offices of Life If I were to describe it I would draw a Tiger bath'd in Blood sharp set and ready to take a leap at his Prey or dress it up as the Poets represent the Furies with Whips Snakes and Flames It should be Sour Livid full of Scars and wallowing in Gore Raging Up and Down Destroying Grinning Bellowing and Pursuing Sick of all other things and most of all of it self It turns Beauty into Deformity and the Calmest Counsels into Fierceness It disorders our very Garments and fills the Mind with Horror How abominable is it in the Soul then when it appears so hideous even through the Bones the Skin and so many Impediments Is not he a Mad-man that has lost the Government of himself and is toss'd hither and thither by his Fury as by a Tempest The Executioner of his own Revenge both with his heart and hand and the Murtherer of his nearest Friends The smallest matter moves it and makes us Insociable and Inaccessible It does all things by Violence as well upon it self as others and it is in short the Master of all Passions THERE is not any Creature so Terrible and Dangerous by Nature but it becomes fiercer by Anger Not that Beasts have humane Affections but certain Impulses they have which come very near them The Boar â—…omes champs and whets his Tusks the Bull tosses his horns in the Ayr Bounds and tears up the Ground with his Feet The Lyon Rores and Swinges himself with his Tail the Serpent Swells and there is a Ghastly kind of fellness in the Aspect of a Mad-Dog How great a Wickedness is it now to indulge a Violence that does not only turn a Man into a Beast but makes even the most outrageous of Beasts themselves to be more Dreadful and Mischievous A Vice that carries along with it neither Pleasure nor Profit neither Honor nor Security but on the Contrary destroyes us to all the Comfortable and Glorious Purposes of our Reasonable Being Some there are that will have the Root of it to be Greatness of Mind And why may we not as well entitle Impudence to Courage whereas the One is Proud the Other Brave the One is Gracious and Gentle the Other Rude and Furious At the same rate we may ascribe Magnanimity to Avarice Luxury and Ambition which are all but Splendid Impotences without Measure and without Foundation There is nothing Great but what is Virtuous nor indeed truely Great but what is also Compos'd and Quiet Anger alass is but a Wild Impetuous Blast an Empty Tumour the very Infirmity of Women and Children a Brawling Clamorous Evil and the more noise the less Courage as we find it commonly that the Boldest Tongues have the Feintest Hearts CHAP. V. Anger is neither Warrantable nor Useful IN the first place Anger is Unwarrantable as it is Unjust For it falls many times upon the wrong person and discharges it self upon the Innocent in stead of the Guilty beside the disproportion of making the most trivial Offences to be Capital and punishing an Inconsiderate Word perhaps with Torments Fetters Infamy or Death It allows a Man neither Time nor Means for Defence but Judges a Cause without Hearing it and admits of no Mediation It flies in the face of Truth it self if it be of the Adverse Party and turns Obstinacy in an Error into an Argument of Justice It does every thing with Agitation and Tumult Whereas Reason and Equity can destroy whole Families if there be Occasion for 't even to the extinguishing of their Names and Memories without any Indecency either of Countenance or Action SECONDLY It is Insociable to the highest point for it spares neither Friend nor Foe but tears all to pieces and casts Humane Nature into a perpetual State of War It dissolves the Bond of Mutual Society in so much that our very Companions and Relations dare not come near us it renders us unfit for the Ordinary Offices of Life for we can neither govern our Tongues our Hands nor any part of our Body It tramples upon the Laws of Hospitality and of Nations leaves every Man to be his own Carver and all things publick and private Sacred and Profane suffer Violence THIRDLY It is to no purpose 'T is a sad thing we cry to put up these Injuries and we are not able to bear them as if any Man that can bear Anger would not bear an Injury which is much more Supportable You 'll say that Anger does some good yet for it keeps People in Awe and secures a Man from Contempt never considering that it is more dangerous to be fear'd than despis'd Suppose that an Angry Man could do as much as he threatens the more Terrible he is still the more odious and on the other side if he wants Power he is the more despicable for his Anger for there is nothing more wretched than a Cholerick Huff that makes a Noise and nobody cares for 't If Anger should be Valuable because Men are afraid of it Why not an Adder a Toad or a Scorpion as well It makes us lead the Life of Gladiators we Live and we Fight together We hate the Happy dispise the Miserable envy our Superiors Insult upon our Inferiors and there is nothing in the World which we will not do either for pleasure or profit To be Angry at Offenders is to make our selves the Common Enemies of Mankind which is both weak and wicked and we may as well be Angry that our Thistles do not bring forth Apples or that every Pebble in our Grounds is not an Oriental Pearl If we are Angry both with Young Men and with Old because they do offend Why not with Infants too because they will offend It is Laudable to rejoyce for any thing that is well done but to be transported for another Mans doing Ill is narrow and sordid Nor is it for the dignity of Virtue to be either Angry or Sad. It is with a Teinted Mind as with an Ulcer not only the Touch but the very offer at it makes us shrink and Complain When we come once to be carry'd off from our Poyze we are lost In the Choice of a Sword we take care that it be weildy and well mounted and it concerns us as much to be wary of engaging in the Excesses of Ungovernable Passions It is not the Speed of a Horse altogether that pleases us unless we
needlesly disquiet our Minds we are offended with our Servants our Masters our Princes our Clyents 'T is but a little Patience and we shall be all of us Equal so that there 's no need either of Ambushes or of Combats Our Wrath cannot go beyond Death and Death will most undoubtedly come whether we be peevish or quiet 'T is time lost to take pains to do that which will infallibly be done without us But suppose that we would only have our Enemy Banish'd Disgrac'd or Damag'd let his punishment be more or less it is yet too long either for him to be inhumanely tormented or for us our selves to be most barbarously pleas'd with it It holds in Anger as in Mourning it must and will at last fall of it self let us look to it then betimes for when 't is once come to an ill habit we shall never want matter to feed it and 't is much better to overcome our Passions than to be overcome by them Some way or other either our Parents Children Servants Acquaintance or Strangers will be continually vexing us We are toss'd hither and thither by our Affections like a Feather in a Storm and by fresh provocations the Madness becomes perpetual Miserable Creatures That ever our Precious hours should be so ill employ'd How prone and eager are we in our Hatred and how backward in our Love were it not much better now to be making of Friendships pacifying of Enemies doing of good Offices both Publick and Private than to be still meditating of mischief and designing how to wound one Man in his Fame another in his Fortune a third in his Person the One being so Easie Innocent and Safe and the Other so Difficult Impious and Hazardous Nay take a Man in Chains and at the Foot of his Oppressor How many are there who even in this Case have maim'd themselves in the heat of their Violence upon others THIS Untractable Passion is much more easily kept out than Govern'd when it is once Admitted for the stronger will give Laws to the weaker and make Reason a slave to the Appetite It carries us headlong and in the Course of our Fury we have no more command of our Minds than we have of our Bodies down a Precipice when they are once in Motion there 's no stop till they come to the bottom Not but that it is Possible for a Man to be warm in Winter and not to sweat in Summer either by the Benefit of the Place or the hardyness of the Body And in like manner we may provide against Anger But certain it is that Virtue and Vice can never agree in the same Subject and one may be as well a Sick Man and a Sound at the same time as a Good Man and an Angry Beside if we will needs be quarrelsome it must be either with our Superior our Equal or Inferior To contend with our Superior is Folly and Madness with our Equals it is Doubtful and Dangerous and with our Inferiors 'tis Base Nor does any Man know but that he that is now our Enemy may come hereafter to be our Friend over and above the Reputation of Clemency and Good Nature And what can be more Honorable or Comfortable than to exchange a Feud for a Friendship The People of Rome never had more Faithful Allies than those that were at first their most obstinate Enemies Neither had the Roman Empire ever arriv'd at that height of Power if Providence had not mingled the Vanquish'd with the Conquerors There 's an end of the Contest when one side deserts it So that the paying of Anger with Benefits puts a period to the Controversie But however if it be our Fortune to Transgress let not our Anger descend to the Children Friends or Relations even of our bitterest Enemies the very Cruelty of Sylla was heightned by that Instance of Incapacitating the Issue of the Proscrib'd It is Inhumane to entail the hatred we have for the Father upon his Posterity A Good and a Wise Man is not to be an Enemy of Wicked Men but a Reprover of them and he is to look upon all the Drunkards the Lustful the Thankless Covetous and Ambitious that he meets with no otherwise than as a Physitian looks upon his Patients for he that will be Angry with Any Man must be displeas'd with All which were as ridiculous as to quarrel with a Body for stumbling in the Dark with one that 's deaf for not doing as you bid him Or with a Schoolboy for loving his Play better than his Book Democritus laugh'd and Heraclitus wept at the Folly and Wickedness of the World but we never Read of an Angry Philosopher THIS is undoubtedly the detestable of Vices even compar'd with the worst of them Avarice Scrapes and gathers together that which some Body may be the better for but Anger lashes out and no Man comes off gratis An Angry Master makes one Servant run away and another hang himself and his Choler causes him a much greater loss than he suffer'd in the Occasion of it 'T is the cause of Mourning to the Father and of Divorce to the Husband It makes the Magistrate Odious and gives the Candidate a Repulse And it is worse than Luxury too which only aimes at its proper pleasure whereas the other is bent upon another bodies pain The Malevolent and the Envious content themselves only to wish another Man Miserable but 't is the business of Anger to make him so and to wreak the Mischief it self not so much desiring the hurt of another as to inflict it Among the Powerful it breaks out into open War and into a Private one with the Common People but without Force or Armes It engages us in Treacheries perpetual Troubles and Contentions It alters the very Nature of a Man and punishes it self in the Persecution of others Humanity excites us to Love This to Hatred That to be beneficial to Others This to hurt them Beside that though it proceeds from too high a Conceipt of our selves it is yet in effect but a Narrow and Contemptible Affection especially when it meets with a Mind that is hard and impenetrable and returns the dart upon the head of him that casts it TO take a further view now of the miserable Consequences and Sanguinary Effects of this hideous distemper from hence come Slaughters and Poysons Wars and Desolation the Rasing and Burning of Cities the Unpeopling of Nations and the turning of Populous Countryes into Desarts Publick Massacres and Regicides Princes led in Triumph some Murther'd in their Bed-Chambers others Stabb'd in the Senate or Cut off in the Security of their Spectacles and Pleasures Some there are that take Anger for a Princely Quality as Darius who in his Expedition against the Scythians being besought by a Noble-Man that had Three Sons that he would vouchsafe to accept of two of them into his Service and leave the third at home for a Comfort to his Father I will do more
Matter but an Ambitious Vanity that has crept in at the Back Dore A Wise Man will keep himself Clear of all these Fooleries without disturbing Publick Customs or making himself a Gazing Stock to the People But Will This Secure him think you I can no more warrant it than that a Temperate Man shall have his Health But it is very Probable that it may A Philosopher has enough to do to stand right in the World let him be never so modest And his out-side shall be still like That of Other people let them be never So Unlike within His Garments shall be neither Rich nor Sordid No matter for Arms Motto's and other Curiosities upon his Plate But he shall not yet make it a Matter of Conscience to have no Plate at all He that likes an Earthen Vessel as well as a Silver has not a greater Mind then he that uses Plate and reckons it as Dirt. It is our Duty to Live Better than the Common-People but not in Opposition to them as if Philosophy were a Faction for by so Doing in stead of Reforming and gaining upon them we drive them away and when they find it unreasonable to Imitate us in All things they will follow us in Nothing Our Business must be to live according to Nature and to own the Sense of Outward things with other people Not to Torment the Body and with Exclamations against that which is Sweet and Cleanly to Delight in Nastiness and To use not only a Course but a Sluttish and Offensive Diet. Wisdom Preaches Temperance not Mortification and a Man may be a very Good Husband without being a Sloven He that Stears a Middle Course betwixt Virtue and Popularity That is to say betwixt Good Manners and Discretion shall gain both Approbation and Reverence But What if a Man Governs himself in his Cloths in his Diet in his Exercises as he ought to do It is not that his Garments his Meat and Drink or his Walking are things Simply Good but it is the Tenor of a Mans Life and the Conformity of it to Right Nature and Reason Philosophy obliges us to Humanity Society and the Ordinary Use of External things It is not a thing to please the People with or to entertain an Idle Hour but a Study for the Forming of the Mind and the Guidance of Humane Life And a Wise Man should also Live as he Discourses and in all Points be like himself And in the first place set a Value upon himself before he can pretend to become Valuable to Others As well our Good Deeds as our Evil come home to us at last He that is Charitable makes others so by his Example and finds the Comfort of That Charity when he wants it himself He that is Cruel seldom finds Mercy 'T is a hard Matter for a Man to be both Popular and Virtuous for he must be Like the People that would oblige them and the Kindness of Dishonest Men is not to be acquir'd by Honest Means He Lives by Reason not by Custome He shuns the very Conversation of the Intemperate and Ambitious He knows the Danger of Great Examples of Wickedness and that Publick Errors impose upon the World under the Authority of Presidents For they take for Granted that they are never out of the way so long as they keep the Road. We are beset with Dangers and therefore a Wise Man should have his Virtues in Continual Readiness to Encounter them Whether Poverty Loss of Friends Pain Sickness or the like He still maintains his Post Whereas a Fool is Surpriz'd at every thing and afraid of his Very Succors Either he makes no Resistance at all or else he does it by Halves He will neither take Advice from Others nor look to himself He reckons upon Philosophy as a thing not worth his time and if he can but get the Reputation of a Good Man among the Common People he takes no farther Care but Accompts that he has done his Duty EPIST. IX The Blessings of a Vigorous Mind in a Decay'd Body with some Pertinent Reflections of Seneca upon his Own Age. WHen I call Claranus my School-fellow I need not say any thing more of his Age having told you that He and I were Cotemporaries You would not Imagine how Green and Vigorous his Mind is and the perpetual Conflict that it has with his Body They were Naturally Ill-match'd unless to shew that a Generous Spirit may â—…e lodg'd under any shape He has Surmounted all Difficulties and from the Contempt of Himself is advanc'd to the Contempt of All things else When I consider him well methinks his Body appears to me as fair as his Mind If Nature could have brought the Soul Naked into the World perhaps she would have done it But yet she does a greater thing in Exalting that Soul above all Impediments of the Flesh. It is a great Happiness to preserve the Force of the Mind in the Decay of the Body and to see the Loss of Appetite More than Requited with the Love of Virtue But whether I Owe This Comfort to my Age or to Wisdome is the Question And whether if I Could any longer I Would not still do the same things over again which I Ought not to do If Age had no other Pleasure than This that it neither Cares for any thing nor stands in need of any thing it were a Great one to me to have left all my painful and troublesome Lusts Behind me But ' T is uneasie you 'll say to be alwayes in Fear of Death As if That Apprehension did not Concern a Young Man as well as an Old Or that Death only call'd us according to our Years I am however beholden to my Old Age that has now confin'd me to my Bed and put me out of Condition of doing those things any longer which I should not do The Less my Mind has to do with my Body the Better And if Age puts an end to my Desires and does the Business of Virtue there can be no Cause of Complaint nor can there be any Gentler End than to melt away in a kind of Dissolution Where Fire meets with Opposition and Matter to work upon it is Furious and Rages but where it finds no Fewel as in Old Age it goes out quietly for want of Nourishment Nor is the Body the Setled Habitation of the Mind but a Temporary Lodging which we are to leave whensoever the Master of the House pleases Neither does the Soul when it has left the Body any more Care what becomes of the Carkass and the several parts of it than a Man does for the shavings of his Beard under the hand of the Barber There is not any thing that Exposes a Man to more Vexation and Reproach than the overmuch Love of the Body For Sence neither looks Forward nor Backward but only upon the Present Nor does it judge of Good or Evil or Foresee Consequences which give a Connexion to the Order and Series of