d to a certain Spanish maxim: _lo que no acaece en
un ano, acaece en un rato_--a thing may not happen in a year, and yet
may happen within two minutes.

The difference in question is, of course, quite natural; for it
requires some amount of discernment to calculate possibilities; but
a man need only have his senses about him to see what has already
happened.

Do not omit to sacrifice to evil spirits. What I mean is, that a man
should not hesitate about spending time, trouble, and money, or giving
up his comfort, or restricting his aims and denying himself, if he
can thereby shut the door on the possibility of misfortune. The most
terrible misfortunes are also the most improbable and remote--the
least likely to occur. The rule I am giving is best exemplified in
the practice of insurance,--a public sacrifice made on the altar of
anxiety. Therefore take out your policy of insurance!

SECTION 51. Whatever fate befalls you, do not give way to great
rejoicings or great lamentations; partly because all things are full
of change, and your fortune may turn at any moment; partly because men
are so apt to be deceived in their judgment as to what is good or bad
for them.

Almost every one in his turn has lamented over something which
afterwards turned out to be the very best thing for him that could
have happened--or rejoiced at an event which became the source of his
greatest sufferings. The right state of mind has been finely portrayed
by Shakespeare:

_I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief That the first face of
neither, on the start, Can woman me unto't_.[1]

[Footnote 1: _All's Well that Ends Well, Act. ii. Sc. 2_.]

And, in general, it may be said that, if a man takes misfortunes
quietly, it is because he knows that very many dreadful things may
happen in the course of life; and so he looks upon the trouble of the
moment as only a very small part of that which might come. This is
the Stoic temper--never to be unmindful of the sad fate of
humanity--_condicionis humanoe oblitus_; but always to remember that
our existence is full of woe and misery: and that the ills to which we
are exposed are innumerable. Wherever he be, a man need only cast a
look around, to revive the sense of human misery: there before his
eyes he can see mankind struggling and floundering in torment,--all
for the sake of a wretched existence, barren and unprofitable!

If he remembers this, a man will not expect very much from life, but
lear