ot think of a Seventh, for the ridiculous Reason you mention, but
out of pure Morality that I think so much Constancy should be
rewarded, tho' I may not do it after all perhaps. I do not believe all
the unreasonable Malice of Mankind can give a Pretence why I should
have been constant to the Memory of any of the Deceased, or have spent
much time in grieving for so insolent, insignificant, negligent,
extravagant, splenatick, or covetous Husband; my first insulted me, my
second was nothing to me, my third disgusted me, the fourth would have
ruined me, the fifth tormented me, and the sixth would have starved
me. If the other Ladies you name would thus give in their Husbands
Pictures at length, you would see they have had as little Reason as my
self to lose their Hours in weeping and wailing.

* * * * *

574. Friday, July 30, 1714. Addison.

'Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte Beatum, reclius occupat
Nomen Beati, qui Deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti
Duramque callet pauperiem pati.'

Hor.

I was once engaged in Discourse with a _Rosicrusian_ about _the great
Secret_. As this kind of Men (I mean those of them who are not professed
Cheats) are over-run with Enthusiasm and Philosophy, it was very amusing
to hear this religious Adept descanting on his pretended Discovery. He
talked of the Secret as of a Spirit which lived within an Emerald, and
converted every thing that was near it to the highest Perfection it is
capable of. It gives a Lustre, says he, to the Sun, and Water to the
Diamond. It irradiates every Metal, and enriches Lead with all the
Properties of Gold. It heightens Smoak into Flame, Flame into Light, and
Light into Glory. He further added, that a single Ray of it dissipates
Pain, and Care, and Melancholy from the Person on whom it falls. In
short, says he, its Presence naturally changes every Place into a kind
of Heaven. After he had gone on for some Time in this unintelligible
Cant, I found that he jumbled natural and moral Ideas together into the
same Discourse, and that his great Secret was nothing else but
_Content_.

This Virtue does indeed produce, in some measure, all those Effects
which the Alchymist usually ascribes to what he calls the Philosopher's
Stone; and if it does not bring Riches, it does the same thing, by
banishing the Desire of them. If it cannot remove the