is a human Accident." But if any one's[1] own Child happens to die, it is presently, "Alas! how wretched am I!" But it should be remembered, how we are affected in hearing the same Thing concerning others.
XXVII.
As a Mark[2] is not set up for the Sake of missing the Aim, so neither doth the Nature of Evil exist in the World.
XXVIII.
If a Person had delivered up your Body to any one, whom he met in his Way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no Shame in delivering up your own Mind to be disconcerted, and confounded by any one, who happens to give you ill Language?
XXIX[3].
XXX.
Duties are universally measured by Relations. Is any one a Father? In this are implied, as due, Taking Care of him; submitting to him in all Things; patiently receiving his Reproaches, his Correction. But he is a bad Father. Is your natural Tie then to a good Father? No: but to a Father. Is a Brother unjust? Well: preserve your
- ↑ Natural Affection prompts us to grieve for a Wife or a Child, and to sympathize with the Griefs of others: whence Christianity teaches us to weep with them who weep: yet forbidding us, in any Case, to sorrow as without Hope. Stoicism carries Truth into Absurdity; while Christian Philosophy makes all Truths coincide, uniting Fortitude with Tenderness and Compassion.
- ↑ Happiness, the Effect of Virtue, is the Mark which God hath set up for us to aim at. Our missing it, is no Work of His; nor so properly any Thing real, as a mere Negative and Failure of our own.
- ↑ This Chapter, except some very trifling Differences, is the same with the Fifteenth of the Third Book of the Discourses; therefore unnecessary to be repeated here.
