composure, than to know for certain that _everything
that happens--from the smallest up to the greatest facts of
existence--happens of necessity._[1] A man soon accommodates himself
to the inevitable--to something that must be; and if he knows that
nothing can happen except of necessity, he will see that things cannot
be other that they are, and that even the strangest chances in the
world are just as much a product of necessity as phenomena which obey
well-known rules and turn out exactly in accordance with expectation.
Let me here refer to what I have said elsewhere on the soothing effect
of the knowledge that all things are inevitable and a product of
necessity.[2]

[Footnote 1: This is a truth which I have firmly established in my
prize-essay on the _Freedom of the Will_, where the reader will find a
detailed explanation of the grounds on which it rests. Cf. especially
p. 60. [Schopenhauer's Works, 4th Edit., vol. iv.--_Tr_.]]

[Footnote 2: Cf. _Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, Bk. I. p. 361 (4th
edit.).]

If a man is steeped in the knowledge of this truth, he will, first of
all, do what he can, and then readily endure what he must.

We may regard the petty vexations of life that are constantly
happening, as designed to keep us in practice for bearing great
misfortunes, so that we may not become completely enervated by a
career of prosperity. A man should be as Siegfried, armed _cap-a-pie_,
towards the small troubles of every day--those little differences we
have with our fellow-men, insignificant disputes, unbecoming conduct
in other people, petty gossip, and many other similar annoyances of
life; he should not feel them at all, much less take them to heart and
brood over them, but hold them at arm's length and push them out of
his way, like stones that lie in the road, and upon no account think
about them and give them a place in his reflections.

SECTION 52. What people commonly call _Fate_ is, as a general rule,
nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct. There is a fine
passage in Homer,[1] illustrating the truth of this remark, where
the poet praises [GREEK: maetis]--shrewd council; and his advice
is worthy of all attention. For if wickedness is atoned for only in
another world, stupidity gets its reward here--although, now and then,
mercy may be shown to the offender.

[Footnote 1: _Iliad_, xxiii. 313, sqq.]

It is not ferocity but cunning that strikes fear into the heart
and forebodes danger;