Men are they that take the fairest and most Honourable Pretences to avoid the consideration of it But every Body that knows it as it really is finds it to be a thing full of Horrour The necessity of Dying was what the Philosophers owed their Constancy of mind to they thought when there was no Remedy but a Man must go it was best to go with a good Grace And since there was no possibility of making their lives Eternal they would stick at nothing to make their Names so and secure all that from the wreck which was capable of being secured Let us put the best Face upon the matter we can satisfie our selves with not Speaking all we think and hope more from a happy Constitution than all the feeble Reasonings that gull us with a Fancy of our being able to meet Death unconcerned The Honour of dying Gallantly the Hope of being Lamented when we are gone the Desire of leaving a good Name behind us the Certainty of a Deliverance from the Miseries of the present Life and of depending no longer upon a fickle and humoursome Fortune are Remedies that we shall do well to make our best of But these though they be no contemptible Remedies yet we must not suppose they are infallible ones They may help to put us in Heart just as a poor Hedge in an Engagement contributes to Encourage the Soldiers that are to March near where the Enemy are Firing behind it While they are at a distance they imagine it may be a good Shelter but when they come up to the place experience convinces them it is but a thin Defence 'T is a vain Imagination and too fatal a Flattery to think that Death hath the same Face near at Hand which we fansie him to have while we view him at a Distance and that our Reasonings which in Truth are weakness it self will prove of so hardned a Temper as to hold out proof and not yield to the severest of all Tryals Besides it shews we are but little acquainted with the Power of Self-love when we imagine that will do us any service toward the looking upon that very thing as a Trifle which must of necessity be its utter Ruine and Reason in which we so often take Sanctuary hath not the power upon this occasion to make us believe what we wish to find true So far from that that this betrays us oftener than any other thing and instead of animating us with a Contempt of Death gives us a more lively Representation of all its Terrour and Gastliness All it is able to do in our behalf is only to Advise that we would turn our Heads another way and divert the thought by fixing our Eyes upon some other Objects Cato and Brutus chose Noble ones indeed A Page not long ago satisfied himself with Dancing upon the Scaffold whither he was brought to be Broke upon the Wheel And thus though in the Motives there was a vast difference yet still the Effects were exactly the same So true it is that after all the disproportion between Great and vulgar Minds people of both sorts have given a World of instances of meeting Death with the same unconcernedness But still there is this difference observable betwixt them that in the Contempt of Death which great Men express the Desire and Love of Honour is the thing that blinds them and in People of a meaner Capacity and Disposition their Ignorance and Stupidity is the thing that keeps them from seeing the greatness of the Evil they are to suffer and leaves them at Liberty to take their thoughts off from this Subject and place them upon something else New Moral Reflections PART II. I. A Man can never Please long that hath but one sort of Wit II. Fools and Coxcombs see all by their own Humour III. Wit serves sometimes to make us play the Fool with greater Confidence IV. Briskness that encreases with Old Age is but one Degree removed from Folly V. The first cure in Love is always the best VI. Young Women that would not be thought Coquett and Old Men that would not be Ridiculous should never talk of Love as if they had any concern in it VII We may seem Great in an Employment below our Desert but we very often look little in one that is too Big for us VIII We often in our Misfortunes take that for Constancy and Patience which is only Dejection of Mind we suffer without daring to hold up our Heads just as Cowards let themselves be knockt o' th' Head because they have not Courage to strike again IX Confidence goes farther in Company than Wit X. All our Passions engage us in Faults but those are the most Ridiculous ones that Love makes us commit XI Few Men know how to be Old XII We value our selves and take a pride in the Faults most distant from our own when we are fickle and irresolute we brag of being Obstinate and Peremptory XIII A Penetrating Wit hath an Air of Divination which swells our Vanity more than any other Accomplishment of the Mind XIV The Beauty of Novelty and the length of Custom though so very opposite to one another yet agree in this that they both alike keep us from discovering the Faults of our Friends XV. Most Friends grow weary of their Friendship and most of their Vows XVI We easily forgive our Friends those Faults by which our selves are not offended XVII Women in Love can sooner forgive great Indiscretions than small Infidelities XVIII It is with an old Love as it is with old Age a Man lives to all the Miseries but is dead to all the Pleasures of Life XIX Nothing hinders a thing from being Natural so much as the sraining our selves to make it seem so XX. When we commend good Actions we make them in some measure our own XXI The surest sign of a noble Disposition is to have no Envy in ones Nature XXII When our Friends have deceived us there is nothing but indifference due to the Expressions of their Kindness but still we owe them a tender sense of their Misfortunes XXIII Fortune and Humour govern the World XXIV It is easier to know what Mankind is in general than what any one Man is in particular XXV A Mans worth is not to be esteemed so much according to his good Qualities as according to the use he makes of them XXVI There is a kind of Acknowledgment that does not only discharge us of all past Obligations but makes our Friends our Debtors for new kindnesses while we pay what we are indebted for old ones XXVII We should desire very few things Passionately if we did but perfectly know the Nature of the things we desire XXVIII The Reason why most Women have so little Sense of Friendship is because this is but a cold and flat Passion to those that have felt that of Love XXIX In Friendship as well as Love Ignorance very often contributes more to our Happiness than Knowledge XXX We attempt
to Vindicate and value our selves upon those Faults we have no design to mend XXXI The strongest Passions allow us some rest but Vanity keeps us perpetually in Motion XXXII The older a Fool is the worse he is XXXIII Irresolution is more opposite to Vertue than Vice XXXIV The pains we feel from Shame and Jealousie are therefore so cutting because Vanity can give us no Assistance in the bearing them XXXV Decency is the least of all Laws and yet the most followed XXXVI A good Disposition finds it easier to submit to perverse ones than to direct and manage them XXXVII When Fortune surprises a Man with a great Preferment to which he is neither Advanced by Degrees nor raised before by his own Hopes it is scarce possible for one to behave himself well and make the World think he deserves his Character XXXVIII What we cut off from our other Faults is very often but so much added to our Pride XXXIX There are no Coxcombs so troublesome as those that have some Wit XL. Every Man thinks himself in some one good Quality or other equal to the Person he hath the highest esteem for XLI In affairs of Consequence it is not a Mans Business so much to seek Occasions as to make the best of those that offer themselves XLII Generally Speaking it were a good saving Bargain to renounce all the good Men said of us upon Condition they would say no ill XLIII As much as the World is inclined to think ill of one another we see them oftener favourable to false Merit than injurious to true XLIV A Man of Wit may sometimes be a Coxcomb but a Man of Judgment never can XLV We shall get more by letting the World see us as we really are than by striving to appear what we are not XLVI The Judgments our Enemies make concerning us come nearer to the Truth than those we pass concerning our selves XLVII Several Remedies are good to cure Love but there is never a one of them Infallible XLVIII We none of us know the utmost that our Passions have the Power to make us do XLIX Old Age is a Tyrant that forbids us all the Pleasures of Youth upon pain of Death L. The same Pride that disposes us to condemn the Faults we think our selves free from inclines us to undervalue the good qualities we want LI. The bewailing our Enemies misfortunes is sometimes more the effect of Pride than of Good Nature we express our Pity and Compassion to make them know that we are above them LII It is impossible for us to love any thing without some respect to our selves and we only consult our own Inclination and our own Pleasure when we preferr our Friends before our own Interest and yet this preference is the only thing that can render Friendship perfect and sincere LIII What Men call Friendship is no more than Society 't is only a mutual care of Interests an exchange of good Offices In a word it is only a sort of Traffick in which Self-love ever proposes to be the Gainer LIV. There is an Excess both in Happiness and Misery above our power of Sensation LV. Innocence does not find near so much Protection as Guilt LVI Of all violent Passions that which does a Woman least hurt is Love LVII Vanity prevails with us to deny our selves more than Reason can do LVIII There are some bad Qualities that make great Accomplishments LIX Men never desire any thing very eagerly which they desire only by the Dictates of Reason LX. All our Qualities are Doubtful and Uncertain both in Good and Evil and they are almost all at the disposal of Time and Opportunity LXI At first Women love their Lover but afterwards they love the Passion it self LXII Pride as well as other Passions hath its unaccountable Whimsies we are shamed to own our selves Jealous when we are so and yet afterwards we value our selves upon having been so and for being capable of being so LXIII As uncommon a thing as true Love is it is yet easier to find than true Friendship LXIV Few Womens Worth lasts longer than their Beauty LXV The greatest part of our intimate Confidences proceed from a desire either to be Pitied or Admired LXVI Our Envy always lasts longer than the good Fortune of those we Envy LXVII The same Resolution which helps to resist Love helps to make it more violent and lasting too People of unsettled Minds are always driven about with Passions but never absolutely filled with any LXVIII It is not in the Power of Imagination it self to invent so many odd and distant Contrarieties as there are naturally in the Heart of every Man LXIX No Man can have a true Sweetness of Temper without Constancy and Resolution they that seem to have it have commonly only an easiness that quickly turns Peevish and Sowre LXX Cowardice is a dangerous Fault to tell those of that we would have mend it LXXI It ought to be agreed on all hands for the Honour of Vertue that Mens greatest Miseries are such as their own Vices bring upon them LXXII True good Nature is a mighty Rarety those that fansie they have it are commonly no better than either weak or complaisant LXXIII Idleness and Constancy fix the mind to what it finds easie and agreeable this Habit always Confines and Cramps up our Notions and no body was ever at the pains to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go LXXIV We speak ill of other People commonly not so much out of Malice as Pride LXXV When the Soul is Ruffled by the remains of ones Passion it is more disposed to entertain a new one than when it is entirely cured and at rest from all LXXVI Those that have had great Passions find themselves perpetually Happy and Unhappy in being cured of them LXXVII There are fewer Men free from Envy than void of Interest LXXVIII Our minds are as much given to Laziness as our Bodies LXXIX The Composedness or the Disorder of our Humour does not depend so much upon the great and most considerable Accidents of our Lives as upon a suitable or unsuitable Management of little things that befall us every Day LXXX Though Men are extremely Wicked yet they never had the Confidence to profess themselves Enemies to Vertue and even when they take delight in persecuting it they either pretend not to think it real or forge some Faults and lay to its charge LXXXI Men often go from Love to Ambition but they seldom come back again from Ambition to Love LXXXII Extream Covetousness is generally mistaken no Passion in the World so often misses of its Aim nor is so much prevailed upon by the present in prejudice to a future Interest LXXXIII Covetousness sometimes is the cause of quite contrary Effects There are a world of People that Sacrifice all their present Possessions to doubtful and distant Hopes and others again slight great Advantages that are future for the sake of some mean and pitiful
become Master of the World was very probably no more than Envy and Emulation IX The Passions are the only Orators that are always successfull in perswading they are a kind of Art in Nature that proceeds upon infallible Rules and the plainest Man with the help of Passion shall prevail more than the most Eloquent Man without it X. There is in the Passions such a constant tendency to private Interest and Injustice that it is dangerous to be guided by them and indeed we should not dare to trust them even then when they appear most fair and reasonable XI The heart of Man ever finds a constant succession of Passions insomuch that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally to be nothing else but the Production and the setting up of another XII The Passions so odd a way of Breeding they have do very often give birth to others of a nature most contrary and distant from their own Thus Avarice sometimes brings forth Prodigality and Prodigality Avarice A Man's resolution is very often the effect of Levity and his daring Boldness that of Cowardice and Fear XIII After all the care Men can take to conceal their Passions and put them off under the dress of Piety and Honour the disguise is too thin and will be sure to discover all at one time or other XIV The love of our selves can better bear to have our Opinions condemned than our Inclinations XV. Men are not only apt to forget the kindnesses and injuries that have been done them but which is a great deal more they hate the Persons that have obliged them and lay aside their resentments against those that have used them ill The trouble of returning Favours and revenging of Wrongs is a slavery it seems which they can very hardly submit to XVI The Clemency of Princes is very often only a State-trick to gain upon the affections of their Subjects XVII That Clemency which the World crys up for such a mighty Vertue proceeds sometimes from Ostentation sometimes from Laziness and Neglect very often from Fear and almost always from a mixture of all these together XVIII The moderation of People in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed Temper owing to the Calm of their good Fortune XIX Moderation is a fear of falling into that Envy and Contempt which those who grow giddy with their good Fortune most justly draw upon themselves it is a kind of boasting the greatness of our mind and in short the moderation of Men in the most exalted Fortunes is a desire to be thought above those things that have raised them so high XX. No body is so weak but he is strong enough to bear the misfortunes that he does not feel XXI The constancy of the Wise is nothing else but the knack of concealing their Passion and Trouble XXII We often see Malefactors when they are led to Execution put on Resolution and a Contempt of Death which in truth is nothing else but fearing to look it in the Face So that this pretended Bravery may very truly be said to do the same good office to their mind that the Handkerchief or Night-cap does to their Eyes XXIII Philosophy finds it an easie matter to vanquish past and future Evils but the present are commonly too hard for it XXIV Very few People are acquainted with Death They undergo it commonly not so much out of Resolution as Custom and Insensibility and the greatest part of the World pretend they are content to die only because they know they cannot help it XXV When great Men sink under the length of their misfortunes this discovers that it was not the greatness of their Soul but of their Ambition that kept up their Spirits so long and that setting aside abundance of Vanity Heroes are just like common Men. XXVI It requires more Vertue to bear a good fortune than ill XXVII Death and the Sun are two things not to be looked upon with a steady Eye XXVIII Men are often so foolish as to boast and value themselves upon their Passions even those that are most vicious But envy is a Passion so full of Cowardice and Shame that no body ever had the confidence to own it XXIX There is something to be said for Jealousie because this only designs the preservation of some good which we either have or think we have a right to but Envy is a rageing Madness that cannot be satisfied with the good of others XXX Our good Qualities expose us more to Hatred and Persecution than all the Ill we do XXXI We do not want strength so much as will to use it and very often the fansying things impossible to be done is nothing else but an excuse of our own contriving to reconcile our selves to our own Idleness XXXII If we had no defects of our own we should not take half so much satisfaction in observing those of other people XXXIII Jealousie is bred in doubts when those doubts change into certainties then the Passion either ceases or turns absolute Madness XXXIV A Proud man can never be a loser no not even then when he renounces his Pride XXXV The being proud our selves makes us complain of others and uneasie at their being so XXXVI All men are proud alike the only difference is that all do not take the same methods of shewing it XXXVII It looks like an indulgence of Nature to give us pride that after she had taken such wise care to fit the Organs of the body for our happiness and convenience we might be delivered from the trouble of knowing our own imperfections XXXVIII Pride hath a greater share than Goodness in the reproofs we give other people for their faults and we chide them not so much with a design to mend them as to make them believe that we our selves are not guilty of them XXXIX We promise in proportion to our Hopes and we keep in proportion to our Fears XL. Interest speaks all manner of Languages and acts all sorts of Parts nay even that of a man that hath no regard at all to Interest XLI Interest makes some people Blind and others quick-sighted XLII They that use to employ their minds too much upon Trifles commonly make themselves incapable of any thing that is serious or great XLIII We have not strength enough to follow our Reason so far as it would carry us XLIV A man often thinks he governs himself when all the while he is governed and managed and while his understanding directs to one design his affections insensibly draw him into another XLV The strength and weakness of a Man's mind are mistaken and improper terms for these are really no other than the Organs of our Bodies being well or ill disposed XLVI The whimsicalness of our own humour is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune XLVII The fondness or indifference that the Philosophers express'd for life was purely a tang of the love of themselves which
destroys Envy and true Love breaks a Coquett Humour CCCLXXVII The greatest Fault of a Penetrating Wit is not coming short of the mark but overshooting it CCCLXXVIII Other Men may give us good Advice but they cannot give us the Wit to make a wise use of it CCCLXXIX When our Merit lowers our Palate lowers with it CCCLXXX Fortune makes our Vertues and Vices visible just as Light does the objects of Sight CCCLXXXI When a Man forces himself to be constant in his Love this is no better than Inconstancy CCCLXXXII Our Actions are like the last Syllables in Words which every Man makes Rhime to what he thinks fit CCCLXXXIII The desire of talking of our selves and shewing our failings on that side we are content they should be seen on makes up a great part of our Sincerity CCCLXXXIV There is nothing deserves so much to be wondered at as that Men should live so long and wonder at any thing CCCLXXXV Men are as far from being satisfied with a great deal of Love as with a little CCCLXXXVI No Men receive more Injuries and Affronts than those that can least bear them CCCLXXXVII A Block-head hath not stuff enough to make a good Man of CCCLXXXVIII If Vanity do not quite over-turn our Vertues yet at least it makes them Totter CCCLXXXIX We have no patience with other Peoples Vanity because it is offensive to our own CCCXC Interest is more easily forgone than Inclination CCCXCI No body thinks Fortune so blind as those she hath been least kind to CCCXCII We should manage our selves with regard to our Fortune as we do with regard to our Health when good enjoy and make the best of it when ill bear it patiently and never take strong Physick without an absolute necessity CCCXCIII The Air of a Citizen is sometimes lost in an Army but never in a Court. CCCXCIV One Man may be too cunning for another but no body can be too cunning for all the World besides CCCXCV 'T is better for a Man sometimes to be deceived in what he Loves than to be undeceived CCCXCVI The first Lover is kept a long while when no body can accuse them of a second CCCXCVII We have not the confidence to say in general terms that our selves have no ill Qualities and that our Enemies have no good ones but when we talk of particulars we are pretty near thinking so CCCXCVIII Of all our Defaults we are most easily reconciled to Idleness we perswade our selves that it sticks close to all the peaceable Vertues and as for the rest that it does not destroy any of them utterly but only suspends the Exercise of them CCCXCIX There is a Sublimity of mind that hath no dependence upon Fortune 'T is a certain air of Authority that seems to lay us out for great things 't is a value which we insensibly set upon our selves and by this quality it is that we claim the respects of other People as if they were our due and this it is commonly that raises us more above them than either Birth or Honours or even Desert it self CCCC There is Worth sometimes without a greatness of Soul but there is never a great Soul without some degree of Worth CCCCI Greatness of Mind sets off Merit as good Dressing does handsome Persons CCCCII. Love is the least part of a modish Courtship CCCCIII Fortune sometimes makes our very Failings the means of raising us and there are some troublesome Fellows who deserve to be rewarded so far as to have their Absence purchased by preferments at a distance CCCCIV Nature seems to have treasured up in every one of our Minds some secret Talents and some one particular faculty which we are not sensible of it is the privilege of the Passions alone to bring these to Light and to direct us sometimes to surer and more excellent Aims than it is possible for Art to do CCCCV. We come altogether Fresh and Raw into the several Stages of Life and notwithstanding we have lived so long are as much to seek sometimes as if we had never had any Experience at all CCCCVI Coquettes pretend to be jealous of their Lovers only to conceal their Envy of other Women CCCCVII Those that are overtaken by any Subtilties of ours do not seem near so Foolish and Ridiculous to us as we our selves are in our own Opinion when we have been outwitted by them CCCCVIII Nothing is more Ridiculous in old People that have been Handsome formerly than to forget that they are not so still CCCCIX. We should often blush for our very best Actions if the World did but see all the motives upon which they were done CCCCX The boldest stroke and best act of Friendship is not to discover our failings to a Friend but to shew him his own CCCCXI The greatest part of our Faults are more excusable than the Methods that are commonly taken to conceal them CCCCXII Though we have deserved Shame never so much yet it is almost always in our own Power to recover our Reputation CCCCXIII After having exposed the falsity of so many seeming Vertues it is but reasonable I should add somewhat of that Deceit there is in the Contempt of Death That Contempt of it I mean which the Heathens pretended to derive from the strength of Nature and Reason without any hope of a better Life to animate them There is a great deal of difference between suffering Death with Bravery and Resolution and slighting it The former is very usual but I very much suspect that the other is never real and sincere There hath been a great deal Written 't is confess'd and as much as the Subject will bear to prove that Death is no Evil and Men of very inferiour Characters as well as Heroes have furnisht us with a great many eminent Examples in confirmation of this Opinion But still I am very much perswaded that no wise Man ever believed so and the trouble they are at to perswade others and themselves shews plainly that this was no such easie undertaking There may be a great many Reasons why Men should be out of conceit with Life but there can be none why we should despise Death Even those who run voluntarily upon it do not reckon it so inconsiderable a matter but are confounded and decline it as much as others if it approach them in any other shape but that of their own choosing The great Disparity observable between the Courage of a World of brave Men hath no other Foundation than this That they have different Ideas of Death and that it appears more present to their Fancy upon some occasions and at some times than it does at others Hence it is that after having slighted what they did not know they are afraid when they come to be better acquainted with it If a Man would perswade himself that it is not the very greatest of Evils he must decline looking it in the Face and considering all its Gastly Circumstances The Wisest and the Bravest
every change something that may still recommend them to the World XXIII Devotion is a Temper of the Mind purely Spiritual and derives it self from God Consequently it is a very Nice thing and ought to be observed very narrowly and with exceeding Caution by those that would keep themselves from being deceived in it XXIV The highest Pitch of Perfection that Men are capable of is to be throughly acquainted with their own Weakness their Vanity and Misery and the less Wit any one hath the less he knows of these Matters XXV There is a sort of Ignorance that knows nothing at all and yet is not near so despicable as that kind of Ignorance which is full of Errour and Impertinence and passes upon a great many for Learning and Knowledge XXVI Too servile a Submission to the Books and opinions of the Ancients as if these were Eternal Truths revealed by God himself hath spoiled many an ingenious Man and plagued the World with abundance of Pedants XXVII If we set aside those Cases in which Religion is concerned a Man ought to measure his Studies and his Books by the Standard of his own Reason and not enslave his Reason to his Books XXVIII Studious Men propose to themselves the filling their heads with Notions that they may talk Fluently and Nicely and be taken notice of in the World more than their own real improvement and better information that they might be Qualified to make a right Judgment of things XXIX Such words as Sympathize Je ne scay quoy's Occult Qualities and a Thousand more of the same kind have no Sense nor Signification at all A Man is wonderfully deceived if he Fansies himself one jot the Wiser for them They were only found out to supply the want of Reason and to be Used when we would fain say something but indeed have nothing to say XXX We attribute more to Reason than is her due She frequently Usurps what of Right belongs to our Constitution and would have but few Advantages if she had no more than are strictly her own XXXI It is but very seldom that Reason cures our Passions but one Passion is commonly cured by another Reason indeed often strikes in with the strongest side And there is no Passion so Extravagant but hath its Reason ready to keep it in Countenance XXXII Good and Right Reason is a Light in the Mind by which it Discerns things as they are in themselves But in this World this Light is encompassed and darkned by a thousand Mists and Clouds XXXIII Reputation would not be so highly valued if we did but duly consider how very unjust Men are both in the giving and the taking of it away again We should be sure to deserve it by doing well and when that care is once taken not be over anxious about the success XXXIV Too tender a Sense of what other People say ill of us does but entertain the Malice of the World which desires nothing more than that it may disturb us XXXV The absolute want of such a Sense so as to be moved at nothing they say is a contrary extream that produces the same effect This is such a sort of Contempt as the World is concerned to revenge it self upon XXXVI There is a middle State and a Temper to be found between these two Extreams which inclines the World to make allowances for some Actions in one Man which yet they condemn without any Mercy in others This makes the mighty difference between Ladies that yet have taken the same Liberties So that some are run down and it is Scandalous to be seen in their Company and others are esteemed as chast as Nuns and no reflections cast upon them XXXVII That pure Platonick Love which some Persons Fansie to themselves is all imagination and delusion The Body hath a greater share in this Passion than the Mind XXXVIII It is no strange thing that some Nations who wanted the Light of the Gospel should worship Love for a God for indeed the Effects and the Resentments of it are very odd very extraordinary and such as seem to exceed the Power of Nature XXXIX The Conversation of fine Women puts a Man's Salvation upon greater Hazard than the softest and most moving Plays Those are the Original these only the Image and Copy Those kindle and inspire the Passions these only awake and entertain them XL. Plays and Musick would have but few admirers if one had never felt Love nor any other Passions XLI It is a common thing to imagine we love a Man of great Interest and Fortune with a very sincere Passion But this is what we cannot be sure of till he be stripp'd of all the advantages of Power and Greatness Then one quickly discerns what it was that engaged our affections If Interest were at the Bottom of it though Honour may keep it up for some time yet it quickly grows weary and lets it fall to the Ground XLII Gratitude is the Vertue of Wise and Generous Minds XLIII Ingratitude is the Fault of Fools and Clowns XLIV There are some sort of People that never look into a Book and yet with their own stock of Natural Parts have a better Sense of things that depend upon clear and true Reason than some great and Bookish Professors XLV Good Sense and Reason ought to be the Umpire of all Rules both Ancient and Modern whatever does not agree with this Standard cannot be Sterling XLVI Nature was given to exercise the Philosophers like some dark Riddle every one makes his own Sense the Key and out of that contrives his own System He that by these Principles explains most difficulties may be allowed thus far to Value himself that he hath hit upon the most probable Opinion XLVII Bodily Pain is the only Evil attending humane Life that is Past the Power of Reason either to cure or to asswage XLVIII Fortune gives out the parts Men are to play upon this Stage of the World blindly and just according to her own unaccountable Humour This is the Reason why there is so much ill acting because Men very seldom hit upon those Characters that are fit for them Or to speak in a more Christian Style what we call Fortune is no other than the Providence of God which permits those disorders for Reasons which we are not able to comprehend XLIX Reason and Experience ought always to go Hand in Hand in the Discovery of Nature L. If frequent Meditations upon Death do not make us better Men yet methinks they should moderate our Passions however and put some restraint upon our Avarice and Ambition LI. Every thing in this Life is accidental even our Birth that brings us into it Death is the only thing we can be sure of And yet we behave our selves just as if all the rest were certain and Death alone accidental LII Life is good in its own Nature the greatest good in the World but the most unthriftily squander'd away and it is not of this but