IT WAS an high speech of Seneca (after the
manner of the Stoics), that the good things,
which belong to prosperity, are to be wished; but
the good things, that belong to adversity, are to be
admired. Bona rerum secundarum optabilia; ad-
versarum mirabilia. Certainly if miracles be the
command over nature, they appear most in adver-
sity. It is yet a higher speech of his, than the other
(much too high for a heathen), It is true greatness,
to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security
of a God. Vere magnum habere fragilitatem homi-
nis, securitatem Dei. This would have done better
in poesy, where transcendences are more allowed.
And the poets indeed have been busy with it; for
it is in effect the thing, which figured in that
strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth
not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some
approach to the state of a Christian; that Hercules,
when he went to unbind Prometheus (by whom
human nature is represented), sailed the length of
the great ocean, in an earthen pot or pitcher; lively
describing Christian resolution, that saileth in the
frail bark of the flesh, through the waves of the
world. But to speak in a mean. The virtue of pros-
perity, is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is
fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical
virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testa-
ment; adversity is the blessing of the New; which
carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer
revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old
Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall
hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the
pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in de-
scribing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of
Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears
and distastes; and adversity is not without com-
forts and hopes. We see in needle-works and em-
broideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work,
upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark
and melancholy work, upon a lightsome ground:
judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart, by the
pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious
odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or
crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but
adversity doth best discover virtue.
Back to: The Essays