Why so quick sighted others' faults to find,But why, my friend, art thou so acute to discern even thy own misfortunes, and so industrious to renew them and set them in thy sight, that they may be the more conspicuous, while thou never turnest thy consideration to those good things which are present with thee and thou dost enjoy But as cupping-glasses draw the impurest blood out of the body, so thou dost extract the quintessence of infelicity to afflict thyself. In this thou art no better than the Chian merchant, who, while he sold abundance of his best and most generous wine to others, called for some [p. 147] that was pricked and vapid to taste at supper; and one of his servants asking another what he left his master doing, he made this answer, that he was calling for bad when the good was by him. For most men leave the pleasant and delectable things behind them, and run with haste to embrace those which are not only difficult but intolerable. Aristippus was not of this number, for he knew, even to the niceness of a grain, to put prosperous against adverse fortune into the scale, that the one might outweigh the other. Therefore when he lost a noble farm, he asked one of his dissembled friends, who pretended to be sorry, not, only with regret but impatience, for his mishap: Thou hast but one piece of land, but have I not three farms yet remaining? He assenting to the truth of it: Why then, saith he, should I not rather lament your misfortune, since it is the raving only of a mad man to be concerned at what is lost, and not rather rejoice in what is left? Thus, as children, if you rob them of one of their play-games, will throw away the rest, and cry and scream; so, if Fortune infest us only in one part, we grow fearful and abandon ourselves wholly to her attacks.
But to thy own so partially art blind?
'Tis malice that exasperates thy mind.
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Let us recapitulate therefore what we have said.
When we are in a fever, every thing that we taste is not
only unsavory but bitter; but when we see others relish it
without any disgust, we do not then lay the blame either
upon the meat or drink, but conclude that only ourselves
and the disease are in fault. In like manner we shall cease
to bear things impatiently, if we see others enjoy them with
alacrity and humor. And this likewise is a great promoter
of the tranquillity of the mind, if, amongst those ill successes which carry a dismal appearance, we look upon
other events which have a more beautiful aspect, and so
blend them together that we may overcome the bad by the
mixture of the good. But although, when our eyes are
dazzled with too intense a splendor, we refresh our sight
by viewing something that is green and florid, yet we fix
the optics of our minds upon doleful objects, and compel
them to dwell upon the recital of our miseries, plucking
them perforce, as it were, from the consideration of what
is better. And here we may insert that which was said to
a pragmatical fellow, handsomely enough:—
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 1.
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