hes; who, as they
are mischievous, so end they infortunate.

Of Adversity

IT WAS an high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that
the good things, which belong to prosperity, are to be wished; but the
good things, that belong to adversity, are to be admired. Bona rerum
secundarum optabilia; adversarum mirabilia. Certainly if miracles be the
command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher
speech of his, than the other (much too high for a heathen), It is true
greatness, to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of
a God. Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei. This
would have done better in poesy, where transcendences are more allowed.
And the poets indeed have been busy with it; for it is in effect the
thing, which figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which
seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the
state of a Christian; that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus
(by whom human nature is represented), sailed the length of the great
ocean, in an earthen pot or pitcher; lively describing Christian
resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh, through the
waves of the world. But to speak in a mean. The virtue of prosperity,
is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is fortitude; which in morals
is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old
Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the
greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even
in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as
many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath
labored more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities
of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and
adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and
embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work, upon a sad and
solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work, upon a lightsome
ground: judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart, by the pleasure
of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when
they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice,
but adversity doth best discover virtue.

Of Simulation And Dissimulation

DISSIMULATION is but a faint kind of policy, or wisdom; for it asketh
a strong wit, and a strong heart, to