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.