e occasions of sorrow, than to pass all
his days in thoughtless mirth and gaiety. And he represents the wise as
choosing to frequent the former of these places; to be sure not for his
own sake, but because _by the sadness of the countenance_, _the heart is
made better_. Every one observes how temperate and reasonable men are
when humbled and brought low by afflictions in comparison of what they
are in high prosperity. By this voluntary resort to the house of
mourning, which is here recommended, we might learn all those useful
instructions which calamities teach without undergoing them ourselves;
and grow wiser and better at a more easy rate than men commonly do. The
objects themselves, which in that place of sorrow lie before our view,
naturally give us a seriousness and attention, check that wantonness
which is the growth of prosperity and ease, and head us to reflect upon
the deficiencies of human life itself; that _every man at his best estate
is altogether vanity_. This would correct the florid and gaudy prospects
and expectations which we are too apt to indulge, teach us to lower our
notions of happiness and enjoyment, bring them down to the reality of
things, to what is attainable, to what the frailty of our condition will
admit of, which, for any continuance, is only tranquillity, ease, and
moderate satisfactions. Thus we might at once become proof against the
temptations with which the whole world almost is carried away; since it
is plain that not only what is called a life of pleasure, but also
vicious pursuits in general, aim at somewhat besides and beyond these
moderate satisfactions.

And as to that obstinacy and wilfulness, which renders men so insensible
to the motives of religion; this right sense of ourselves and of the
world about us would bend the stubborn mind, soften the heart, and make
it more apt to receive impression; and this is the proper temper in which
to call our ways to remembrance, to review and set home upon ourselves
the miscarriages of our past life. In such a compliant state of mind,
reason and conscience will have a fair hearing; which is the preparation
for, or rather the beginning of, that repentance, the outward show of
which we all put on at this season.

Lastly, The various miseries of life which lie before us wherever we turn
our eyes, the frailty of this mortal state we are passing through, may
put us in mind that the present world is not our home; that we are merely
str