I know it is my duty to be content in all conditions; but yet, if it were at my election, I would choose the fairest. When a man comes once to stand in need of fortune, his life is anxious, suspicious, timorous, dependent upon every moment, and in fear of all accidents. How can that man resign himself to God, or bear his lot, whatever it be, without murmuring, and cheerfully submit to Providence, that shrinks at every motion of pleasure or pain? It is virtue alone that raises us above griefs, hopes, fears and chances; and makes us not only patient, but willing, as knowing that whatever we suffer is according to the decree of Heaven. He that is overcome with pleasure, (so contemptible and weak an enemy) what will become of him when he comes to grapple with dangers, necessities, torments, death, and the dissolution of nature itself? Wealth, honor, and favor, may come upon a man by chance; nay, they may be cast upon him without so much as looking after them: but virtue is the work of industry and labor; and certainly it is worth the while to purchase that good which brings all others along with it. A good man is happy within himself, and independent upon fortune: kind to his friend, temperate to his enemy, religiously just, indefatigably laborious; and he discharges all duties with a constancy and congruity of actions. CHAPTER IV. PHILOSOPHY IS THE GUIDE OF LIFE. If it be true, that the _understanding_ and the _will_ are the _two eminent faculties of the reasonable soul_, it follows necessarily, that _wisdom_ and _virtue_, (which are the best improvements of these two faculties,) must be the perfection also of our _reasonable being_; and consequently, _the undeniable foundation of a happy life_. There is not any duty to which Providence has not annexed a blessing; nor any institution of Heaven which, even in this life, we may not be the better for; not any temptation, either of fortune or of appetite, that is not subject to our reason; nor any passion or affliction for which virtue has not provided a remedy. So that it is our own fault if we either fear or hope for anything; which two affections are the root of all our miseries. From this general prospect of the _foundation_ of our _tranquillity_, we shall pass by degrees to a particular consideration of the _means_ by which it may be _procured_, and of the _impediments_ that _obstruct_ it; beginning with that _philosophy_ which principally regards our manners, and instructs us in the measures of a virtuous and quiet life.