XLIV. I have hitherto treated of the happiness of men, by making an
estimate of it, according to their situations or conditions of life;
abstracted from any particular accidents, that may intervene or occur
to individuals of both sorts, both high and low; there being no doubt
but humble fortune, is also exposed to terrible reverses and mortifying
disgusts, although not so frequently as the exalted.
XLV. But if I am asked, whom I repute absolutely happy or unhappy
among mortals? With respect to the happy, I answer with a sentence of
the great Chancellor Bacon, in his book entitled _Interiora Rerum_:
where he says, I judge those to be happy, whose mode of living is
proportioned to their genius or inclination: _Felices dixerim, quorum
indoles naturalis cum vitæ suæ genere congruit_: a decision, worthy
of the superior talents of that incomparable Englishman. I think,
notwithstanding, there should be some limitation added to the sentence,
which is, that the genius or inclination should not be a vicious one,
for in that case the person would be always unhappy. The ambitious
man, for example, although he finds himself in the occupation of high
posts, is ever restless and anxious to rise to others still higher.
The covetous man, even when he is overloaded with riches, labours and
toils to add fresh treasures to his heap. The opulent glutton fills
himself with meat and drink, but he also fills himself with diseases,
which afterwards, turn all he has eaten and drunk to bitterness.
XLVI. With the limitation I have mentioned, I esteem the sentence a
very true one. Temporal conveniences are all relative, and there is as
much variance in the genius of men with respect to the application of
them, as there is in their inclinations with respect to the food they
fancy. What one esteems good, another thinks bad. God only is good, and
savory to all men. This man disdains the lot, which that adores; and
one grasps the thing, which another despises. Cæsar, when he was going
to Spain, in his passage over the Alps, came to a very poor little
village, where one of his companions, in a conversation which turned
on the misery of the inhabitants, asked another sneeringly, if he
thought these Barbarians also, had their questions and disputes, about
who should command and govern. To which Cæsar replied quickly, saying,
“I assure you, I had much rather be the first man in this village,
than the second at Rome.” The learned Fleming Nicholas Clenard, went
over to Africa, with an intention of learning Arabic, and remained
two years in the kingdom of Fez, from whence he wrote often to his
friends; and in his letters assured them, that he never was in a place,
the customs of which suited so well with his genius, for this reason
only, because in that kingdom, they had not such a multitude of laws,
nor were their litigations so prolix, as in Europe; all disputes being
instantly determined by the magistrate in a summary way. This method
suited well with the disposition of Clenard, who abhorred extremely,
the endless windings and turnings of processes in our tribunals. George
Paschio, relates of him in his Book, _de Novis Inventis_, though what
he says is not true, that on this account only, he left his own country
and went to live in Fez. To this it may be replied, that it appears
from the testimony of many authors, his return to Spain was voluntary;
from whence, after teaching languages some time in the University of
Salamanca, he went to the Court of Lisbon, where he was engaged as a
tutor to the Prince of Portugal, brother of King John the Third.
XLVII. This great variety in the genius and dispositions of men, and
not the platonic love of their country, is the true cause why many find
themselves satisfied in miserable and unpleasant regions, and refuse to
leave them for others more happily situated. Ovid having observed, that
some Scythians, who were brought to Rome, never missed an opportunity
of flying back to their own steril bleak country, which was the place
of their nativity, attributes their doing so to an occult affection
for home, (that he himself, with all his explanatory powers, could not
hit upon the explanation of,) which, like a sympathetic faculty, or
magnetic virtue, attracts every man to his own country, and at last
leaves it undefined, with a sort of declaration, that he does not know
what it is:
_Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine cunctos_
_Tangit, & immemores non sinit esse sui._
_Quid melius Roma? Scythico quid frigore pejus?_
_Huc tamen ex illa barbarus urbe fugit._
XLVIII. It is owing to none of all this, nor was it the effect of a
mysterious magic, which charms and enchants men to be fond of their own
country, which induced the Scythians to leave the soft habitations of
Rome, for the frozen regions of Scythia; for we every day see men, who
to improve their fortunes leave their native homes, sometimes never
to return again; but it does not follow from thence, that they cease
to love their country. The place where I write this abounds in such
examples. The true reason of this political phænomenon is, that the
mode of the Scythians living in their own country, was proportioned and
suited to their natural genius and disposition. The same thing happens
with respect to the Laplanders, a Northern nation, situated between
Norway, Sweden, and Russia, on the coasts of the Frozen Sea. These
Barbarians live in a continual state of war, with an immense number of
bears and wolves, and in a country full of lakes, and almost always
covered with snow. Many of them at various times have been brought
to Germany; but notwithstanding they were well accommodated, and had
a good maintenance assigned them, there never was one, who, when an
opportunity offered, did not fly back to his own country.
XLIX. True temporal felicity, consists, in attaining that state or mode
of life, which the genius or inclination of a man prompts him to wish
or desire. Conveniences with respect to the soul, may be compared to
clothes with respect to the body, it not being possible to bring those,
which in appearance are best made, to suit well with, or to fit every
shape.
L. There are however some of such flexible tempers, that they can
accommodate themselves to every kind of fortune, and be content to
live within the limits of its extension; some dispositions of soft
wax, who at will, can conform themselves in such a manner, that every
thing sits easy on them. Nothing inquiets them, because the softness
of their texture gives way to every impulse. They enlarge and contract
themselves, in proportion to the limits of the walk which is allowed
them. They rise without fatigue, and they descend without violence.
In their own docility, they find the honey, which edulcorates every
sort of acid. They are of so happy a temperament, that provided they
don’t want what is absolutely necessary, they are contented in every
station. The wheel of their mind is concentrical with the wheel of
their fortune, and let this last turn as it will, they with great
facility turn themselves to correspond with it. They bear their fortune
within themselves, let them move whichever way they will. It cannot be
denied, that there are but few people of this sweet disposition; but
it should be also confessed, that such are the truly happy, and that
only the saints themselves can be more so, because they are either
without the circle of the wheel, or placed in the center of it, so that
its turnings can neither raise them to pride, nor precipitate them to
contempt.