48. Our humor sets its price on every thing we get from fortune. 49. Happiness lies in the taste, and not in the things; and it is from having what we desire that we are happy-not from having what others think desirable. 50. We are never so happy, or so unhappy, as we imagine. 51. Men who fancy they have merit, take a 49. 'Every one is well or ill at ease, according as he finds himself: not he whom the world believes, but he who believes himself to be so, is content, and therein alone belief gives itself being and reality. Fortune does us neither good nor hurt; she only presents us the matter and the seed, which our soul, more powerful than she, turns and applies as she best pleases, being the sole cause and sovereign mistress of her own happy or unhappy condition. All external accessions receive taste and color from the internal constitution, as clothes warm us not with their heat but our ́own, which they are adapted to cover and keep in."-MONTAIGNE, b. i. ch. 40. 51. "Persecution to persons in a high rank stands them in the stead of eminent virtue."-DE RETZ. pride in being unfortunate, to persuade others and themselves that they are worthy to be the butt of fortune. 52. Nothing ought so much to diminish the good opinion we have of ourselves as to see that we disapprove at one time what we approve at another. 53. Whatever may be the apparent difference between fortunes, there is a certain compensation of good and evil which renders them equal. 54. However great the advantages which Nature bestows on us, it is not she alone, but Fortune in conjunction with her, which makes heroes. Dogberry, in the enumeration of his merits, tells us that he is "a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses."-Much Ado about Nothing, Act iv. Scene 2. See also Scott's Introduction to Quentin Durward, where Dogberry's remark is discussed. 54. "In analyzing the character of heroes, it is hardly possible to separate altogether the share of fortune from their own."-HALLAM. 55. The contempt of riches among the philosophers was a hidden desire to revenge their merit for the injustice of Fortune, by contempt of the very advantages of which she deprived them. It was a secret to secure themselves from the degradation of poverty: it was a byroad to arrive at that consideration which they could not obtain by riches. 56. Hatred of favorites is nothing else than the love of favor. The mortification of not possessing it, is consoled and relieved by the contempt we show of those who do possess it; and we refuse them our respect, because we cannot deprive them of what attracts the respect of all the world. 55. This will remind the reader of one of Gibbon's sneers. "It is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the inferior ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and pleasure which fortune has placed beyond their reach. The virtue of the primitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance."-Decline and Fall, cap. 15. "Since we cannot attain to greatness, let us revenge ourselves by railing at it."-MONTAIGNE, b. iii. c. 7. 57. In order to establish themselves in the world, men do all they can to appear established there. 58. Although men pride themselves on their great actions, these are often the result, not of any great design, but of chance. 59. It would seem that our actions are regulated by lucky or unlucky stars, to which they owe a great part of the praise or blame bestowed on them. 60. There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some 57. "If a man wishes to become rich, he must appear to be rich."-GOLDSMITH. According to Juvenal, the Roman lawyers had a thorough appreciation of this truth: 66 'Respicit hæc primum, qui litigat, an tibi servi Octo, decem comites, an post te sella, togati Sat. vii. 141. advantage from; and none, however fortunate, that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice. 61. Fortune turns every thing to the advantage of her favorites. 62. The happiness or unhappiness of men depends as much on their humors as on fortune. 63. Sincerity is an opening of the heart: we find it in very few people; and that which we generally see is nothing but a subtle dissimulation to attract the confidence of others. 64. Aversion to lying is often an imperceptible 61. "Aderat (Cereali) fortuna etiam ubi artes defuissent."-TACITUS, Hist. v. c. 21. 62. "Satis est orare Jovem quæ donat et aufert, Det vitam, det opes, æquum animum mî ipse parabo." HOR. Epist. i. 18, 111. 63. "C'est toujours un mauvais moyen de lire dans le cœur des autres, que d'affecter de cacher le sein."-RousSEAU, Conf. 1. 2. |