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two privileges are common to Gods and to men and to all rational beings: first, not to be controlled in their actions by any thing foreign or external; and, secondly, to place their happiness in right affections and virtuous actions; and to confine their desires within these limits.
33. If a misfortune is, in no respect, my fault, or the consequence of any fault of mine; nor injurious to the community; why am I uneasy, or concerned about it?34
34. Do not suffer yourself to be hurried away by any sudden impulse of fancy or compassion.35 If any one wants your assistance, indeed, give it to the best of your power, and according to the merits of the case, even though it concerns the indifferent things of life; yet you must not consider them as suffering any real misfortune, for that is a vulgar opinion. But, as the old man in the Farce,36 so when taking leave of his pupil, talked to him about his top, &c. though he knew it to be a childish amusement; so you may act with regard to the vulgar, and condescend to their weakness on those occasions. In like manner, when you are pronouncing a panegyric in the Rostrum,37 my good man, are you not sensible what trifling this is? Very true; nevertheless people are highly delighted with these things. Must you then be a fool, because other people are?—Let it suffice that you formerly have been so. А man may be happy in any situation, if he is not wanting to his own improvement in virtue; for happiness depends entirely on virtuous affections and good actions.
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