Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/241

 Rh upon the Occasion! For being neither shocked at the Present, nor afraid of what's to Come. The Thing might have happen'd to any other Man as well as my self, but for all that, every Body would not have been so easy under it. Why then is not the Good Fortune of the Bearing, more considerable than the Ill Fortune of the Happening? Or to speak properly, How can that be a Misfortune to a Man, which is no Disappointment to his Nature ? And how can that cross upon a Man's Nature which falls in with the very Intention and Design of it? Now what Humane Nature, rightly dispos'd, drives at, I suppose you are not to learn at this time of Day. To apply this Reasoning: Does the present Accident hinder your being Honest and Brave, Temperate and Modest, Judicious, and Unservile? &c. Now when a Man is furnished with these Good Qualities, the highest Notion of him is finish'd, and his Nature has what she would have. Farther; When any thing grows troublesome recollect this Maxim; That generous Behaviour is to strong for Ill Fortune, and turns it to an Advantage.

L. To consider those old People that resign'd so unwillingly, is for a common Notion, not unserviceable; it helps us some- Rh