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; ad-

versarum mirabilia.  Certainly if miracles be the

command over nature, they appear most in adver-

sity.  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 homi-

nis, 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 pros-

perity, is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is

fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical

virtue.  Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testa-

ment; 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 de-

scribing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of

Solomon.  Prosperity is not without many fears

and distastes; and adversity is not without com-

forts and hopes.  We see in needle-works and em-

broideries, 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.