Instructions to a Son, Chapter 10
CHAP. X. Considerations of life.
NO man is so miserable as he whose life is hated by all, and his death desired by as many.
I have known men that have suffered by fortune unexpectedly, and having the calamity in their view, have been so far transported beyond themselves, that their rage and fury even before justice, hath proved their sufficient defence.
Our trouble will never be at an end, if we interest our selves in other mens businesses.
Great deliberation and slow resolution is required in the affairs of the world, for as in the trade of navigation, the impetuousness of the Sea is decryed and charged with several shipracks, so is it not otherwise in the affairs of men, where passion and unruly violence have overset many gallant designs and enterprises.
In matters in which you seem to have right on your side and justice also, a speedy dispatch is more needful then to languish through the delay of the remedy; on the other side, if you suspect the justice of your cause, the dispute and continuance of the difference is most profitable, and hesitation is better then resolution, the disease better then the cure.
Be not dejected by knowing you are constrained to begin with small designs, for great affairs often begin from occasions far disjoyned and remote from the end to which their undertakers aspired, for the beginning of designes reaches not so far as the issue.
Many small troubles are like letters of a small print they trouble and offend our eyes, without the help of the spectacles of reason and judgement; but great adversities we read presently and more easily.
Sundry affections and passions of men may conceal themselves, but gladness is of the nature of fire, which manifests it self the more it is stifled and smothered.
Follow not the fashion of the world, who, rather delight in praising of vertue then in imitating of it.
No life is so full of content as to live by ones self, and meddle not with other mens matters.
It is impossible for any man to live by such a rule of reason, which the fresh occurrences of things, time and custome, may not innovate upon, and withall have informed him so much, that in what he pretended to be well skill'd, he is a meer novice, and that which he esteemed rare and excellent, to be unworthy of his most undervaluing considerations.
Most happy are those, who keeping a constant tenour of life pass through it without any danger, in the managery of business, or else live in a continual quiet and repose in privacy and retirement.
It is a demonstration of the greatness of spirit and of prudence, to forget that which is lost and cannot be recovered, to give way to thoughts designing the amends other ways.
The body is pleased and recreated only, during the time only of its pleasure, whereas the mind of man foresees future contentments and enjoyments, and suffers not the memories of past felicities to slip her repetition.
Youth giveth a tast and indication of what may be expected from men; the rest of our time and seasons of our life, are appointed and designed to reap, gather and receive the profits of what was sown in that age.
'Tis folly to complain of life, more to be troubled at the end of it, by the reason we ought more to complain of our birth, that made and produced us mortal, then of our death, which will render us immortal.
To be long or short lived is no more then this, we come either sooner or later (no great choice) to our grave. He is very desirous of life, who is unwilling to dye when all the world is weary of him.
'Tis not white or gray hairs, nor wrinckles in the face, beget a present respect for men, but a life honourably passed, conferrs glory and renown, and places the deserved wreaths on their Temples,
'Tis a strange insatuation in man, that he never takes thought how to l ve vertuously, but is very careful how to prolong his life from a loose principle, that it lies in the power of a man to live well, but it is out of his power to live long.
A life among Roses, ends in a death among Thornes and Thistles, which proceeds always from those intemperances and disorders our pleasurers sway us to.
Life is a continual longing, and a continual nauseating, and all humane reason, judgement, and art cannot by any ways remedy it, and who would be a slave to such vicissitudes?
They are very miserable who have nothing but a heap of years to prove they have lived long, but infinitely unhappy are they who survive their credit and reputation.
There is no better defence against the injuries of fortune and vexation of life, then death.
Make your Estate the bound of your desires, and not your desires the limits of your Estate, but the best and equalest boundary to both is death.