It was a 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.”)[92] 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.”)[93] This would have done better in poesy, where
transcendencies are more allowed, and the poets, indeed, have been
busy with it; for it is, in effect, the thing which is figured in
that strange fiction of the ancient poets,[94] 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[95] 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 needleworks 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.[96]