7. As long as thou livest thou art subject to mutability, even against thy will: so as thou art MERE EMOTION IS UNSTABLE found one while merry, another while sad: one while quiet, another while troubled: now devout, then indevout: now diligent, then listless now grave, and then light. : 8. But he that is wise and well instructed standeth fast in spite of those mutable things, not heeding what he feeleth in himself, or which way the wind of instability bloweth, but so that the whole intention of his mind tendeth to the right and best end. 9. With respect to any final aim or end, the greater part of mankind live at hazard. LET TURN THEE 10. They have no certain harbour in view, nor direct their course by any fixed star. But to him that knoweth not the port to which he is bound, no wind can be favourable. 11. When once thou hast conceived and determined thy mission within thy soul, let naught arrest thy steps. 12. Fulfil it with all thy strength; fulfil it, whether blessed by love or visited by hate; whether strengthened by others, or in the sad solitude that almost always surrounds the martyrs of thought. 13. The path is clear before us; we are cowards, unfaithful to our own future, if, in spite of sorrows and delusions, we do not pursue it to the end. 14. The minds of all men are at some times in a state more nearly perfect, and at other times in a state more depraved. Fix and cherish the good hours of the mind, obliterate and take forth the evil. FIX THE D 15. It is the shame and folly of the human race, that the greatest part of them do not resolve upon any fixed and settled method of life, but, like the brute creatures, live and die without design, and without proposing any reasonable end. 16. All virtue lies in strength of character or of moral purpose; for the gentle, winning qualities rise into virtue only when pervaded and sustained by moral energy. 17. Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, with uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life. It is no ground of trust, no promise of fidelity in any of the great exigencies of life. 18. It is strength of holy purpose, infused into the kind affections, which raises them into virtues, or gives them a moral worth not found in constitutional amiableness. A HOLY AIM 19. My heart is a vain heart, vagabond and unstable; and whilst it divers ways seeketh rest, findeth none, but remaineth miserable through labour, and void of peace. FORMS VIRTUES AS 20. It agreeth not with itself, it altereth resolutions; changeth the judgment, frameth new thoughts, pulleth down the old, and buildeth them up again. It willeth and willeth not, and never remaineth in the same state. 21. What boots it at one gate to make defence, And at another to let in the foe, Effeminately vanquished? 22. If these two things be supposed, that a man set before him honest and good ends, and again, that he be resolute, constant, and true unto them; it will follow that he shall mould himself into all virtue at once. 23. When a carver makes an image, he shapes only that part whereupon he worketh; as if he be upon the face, that part which shall be the body is but a rude stone still, till such times as he comes to it. 24. But, contrariwise, when nature makes a flower or living creature, she formeth rudiments of all the parts at one time. 25. So, in obtaining virtue by habit, while a man practiseth temperance, he doth not profit much to fortitude, nor the like. 26. But when he dedicateth and applieth himself to good ends, look, what virtue soever the pursuit and passage towards those ends doth commend unto him, he is invested of a precedent disposition to conform himself thereunto. 27. He it is who, when great trials come, Nor seeks nor shuns them, but doth calmly stay, 28. Whom neither force nor fawning can 29. Whom none can work or woo To use in anything a trick or sleight, At close tentations; when the day is done, 32. The sun to others writeth laws, And is their virtue; Virtue is his sun. CHAPTER XVII KEEP TO THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW LIFE MUST WAY 1. Our hard entrance into the world, our miserable going out of it, our sicknesses, disturbances, and sad encounters in it, do clamorously tell us we come not into the world to run a race of delight, 2. But to perform the sober acts and serious purposes of man; which to omit were foully to miscarry in the advantage of humanity. 3. Life is neither a pain nor a pleasure, but serious business, which it is our duty to carry through and conIclude with honour. 4. He who aims high must dread an easy home and popular manners. Heaven sometimes hedges a rare character about with ungainliness and odium, as the burr that protects the fruit. TRIFLING 5. For thy soul's sake, consider and tell thyself, if thy estate in the world did lie upon the spending of this day or week, or if thy life lay on it, so that thou must live or die, be poor or rich, sick or well, as thou spendest it, THE SOUL 6. Wouldst thou then waste it in dressings or compliment, or play? and wouldst thou find any time to spend on impertinent triflings? 7. Or rather wouldst thou not be up betime, and about thy business, and turn by thy games and thy diverting company, and disappoint thine idle visitors, and let them find that thou art not to be spoken with, nor at leisure to do nothing, but will rather seem uncivil and morose, than be undone ? 8. The foolish follow after vanity; deluded men! While the wise guard earnestness as their richest treasure. 9. Follow not after vanity, nor familiarity with the delight of lust, For the earnest and the thoughtful obtain ample joy. AVOID THE 10. Let thine eyes look straight on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Remove thy feet from evil. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. WIDE GATE 11. One may go wrong in many different ways,—but right only in one; and so the former is easy, the latter difficult: easy to miss the mark, but hard to hit it. 12. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. 13. For they sleep not unless they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. |