Lindamor, though he here made a Pause to take breath, would yet perhaps have prosecuted his Discourse, had he not been prevented by the intervening of Eusebius, who a while after we had left him, having miss’d us, had follow’d us to the palace he found us in, and who, when he drew nigh, having over-heard Lindamor speaking, stood still a while at some distance off, to listen to what he said, and so became an unsuspected Auditor of the last part of his Friends Discourse. Whereupon taking him by the hand, and leading him towards the River, he told him, with a serious, not to call it a severe Look; I had thought, Lindamor, you had made righter Estimates of the several courses of Life, than, by what I have newly over-heard you say, I now suspect you do. Know then, Lindamor, (adds he) That Innocence and Contentment depend more upon a Man’s mind, than upon his condition: To manifest this to you, I shall in the first place observe, that ‘tis not always the Occasion, or the Object, but rather the Degree that makes an Affection of the Mind unruly and troublesome; Nor is it according to the intrinsick value of things, which none save the Wise can discern; but the Rate, how unskilfully soever fixt, which we put upon them, that they operate upon our passions. And therefore, you shall see a Child take on more sadly for the scape of a Sparrow, or the breaking of a Rattle, than some will do for the loss of a good Estate, nay, of a Friend; and Haman, for the want of a Bow from Mordecai, complain’d more in his Place, than Job, till his miserable comforters had exasperated his grief, did for the loss of the biggest Fortune in the East, and of the Children he reserv’d it for, and valu’d far above it.
And then, Lindamor, (continues Eusebius) do not imagine, that though Courtiers and Gallants have more spendid and glittering Temptations to Sin and Discontent, Country people are exempted from Temptation to either: Theirs may be as great, though not the same, nor so specious as the other; their Faults and Infelicities are indeed less taken notice of, because their Persons and Conditions are obscure, and their Poverty conceals their Vices, as well as their Virtues, from our Eyes; as in a sharp Winter the Snow does as well hide their Dunghills, as cover their Gardens. But if your Quality allow’d you to acquaint your self with the true state of this inferiour sort of People, you would soon perceive, that ev’n of rural Families, there is scarce any, that, as far as their Wits will reach, has not its several Parties, and little Intrigues; Nor is there any Cottage so low, and narrow, as not to harbour Care, and Malice, and Covetousness, and Envy, if those that dwell in it have a mind to entertain them: And what Envy alone may do to produce Crimes and Discontents, we may conjecture by what happen’d betwixt Cain and Abel, since their being heirs to the whole World, could not keep two Brothers at peace, whilst one of them was envious: And there are some sordid Vices, which are more incident to the meaner and more necessitous sort of Men, as Spiders and Cobwebs are wont to abound more in thatch’d Cabbins, than in great Mens houses. I should perhaps (says Eusebius) think these people happy, if I found they thought themselves so; but the Pomp and Vanities of the World have oftentimes stronger allurements for them, than for the Grandees and Courtiers themselves: For those that are possess’d of these imaginary Joys, are disabus’d by their own Experience; and those that live among these Theatrical persons, are near enough to discern that they are but causelesly envy’d. As (for my part) when I had occasion to be conversant in great Mens Families, and the honour to preach in Princes Courts, the sight of their course of Life did as thorowly convince me of the Vanity of the World, as my Sermons endeavour’d to convince them. Whereas Country people see but the glittering and deluding outside of Greatness, and beholding it but at a distance, see it in the favourablest light which Men can behold it in, and consequently are strongly tempted to envy what they admire, and repine at their own condition, for the want of it: Nay, every gawdy trifle, that those that live in Towns and Cities chance to make shew of, is wont to make a Country man envy, as well as gape; And ‘tis odds, but that very Milk-maid, whose condition you are pleas’d to think so happy, envies some Neighbouring Farmers Daughter for a piece of taudry Ribbon, or a black Hood: Nor are they so much more priviledg’d from the assaults of Temptation, than Men of higher rank; For ‘tis not so much a Mans outward condition, as his inward disposition and temper of mind, that makes Temptations either to sin, or to discontent, prevalent, or unsuccessfull. When Joseph was sold into Egypt, and sollicited by a Woman that would needs be his Mistress upon more scores than one, though his condition expos’d him more to hopes and fears, than almost any other condition could expose another Man, And though his Youth made him very capable of rellishing the pleasures that his Beauty made him courted to receive, by giving them; yet this chast Youth chose rather to be Imprison’d any where, than in a fair Ladies Arms, and preferr’d the being made a Captive, before the Captivating of his amorous Mistress. But whilst young Joseph was thus chast in the Aegyptian Potiphar’s House, his eldest Brother Reuben was Incestuous in good Jacob’s whose Family was then the visible Church of God; and Lot, who was chast and temperate in Sodom it self, was Drunk and committed Incest in a Cave; so much more does the success of Temptations depend upon the temper of a Man’s mind, than upon the place he lives in.
I know not (says Eugenius) whether the Innocence of Rural people be more easie than that of great Men, but sure it is not so commendable: For as a Woman that has never yielded, because she was never sollicited, may be call’d rather Innocent than Virtuous; so their condition, that owe their not being Inveigl’d by the Vanities of the World, to their Ignorance of them, has more in it of good fortune than of merit. I thank you for that consideration, (subjoyns Eusebius) for I confess I think there is a great Disparity betwixt an unacquaintedness with the bewitching pleasures of the World, and a contempt of them. And he is the truly heroick Spirit, that can (as David could) plentifully enjoy all those sensual Delights and Vanities he chose to reject: For he could feast a Nation, and prefer Temperance before all that Abundance; He could gain strange Victories at once over his outward Enemies, and over the Temptations he was expos’d to by such successes; He could Build stately Palaces, and then profess himself to be but a Stranger, and a Sojourner upon Earth; He could afford Humility room to sit with him on his Throne, and could listen to her Memento’s amidst all the Acclamations of his People, and the Panegyricks of his Courtiers; He was not to be resisted by Beauties, that to others were irresistible, when he postpon’d the fairest Objects that could here charm his Eyes, to such as were visible only to those of Faith; He had got together the greatest Treasure, that for ought I remember we read of in any History, and yet seems never to have been much pleas’d with it, but when he dedicated it to the Building of the Temple, and made the fruits of his Valour the oblations of his Piety. To be short, he was the greatest Person upon Earth, when he was content to leave it; and was willing to descend from the Throne into the Grave, whilst he look’d upon that as the place whence he must ascend to the Mansion of his God; so much did he, ev’n whilst he wore an earthly Crown, aspire to an Heavely one. And though (continues Eusebius) we must now a days as little expect to meet with a Man of David’s condition, as of his temper, yet proportionably we may put a vast Difference betwixt those that but escape the sight of the World’s allurements, and those that reject the Profers of them.
Eusebius was in this part of his Discourse, when we were come near enough to the River, to discover it within a little way of us: And therefore finding by his silence, that he thought it seasonable to desist, I only ventur’d to tell him, with a low Voice, as we continu’d our Walk, that I suspected, that in some of the things he had been saying, he had a design rather to check Lindamor a little, and keep up the Discourse, than to deny, that a retir’d and rural Life has great advantages towards Contentation: To which, that he might conclude what he had to say, before we reach’d the River, he made haste to reply in the same Tone, That I was not altogether mistaken: For (says he) I think the case may be pretty well represented, by saying, that as there are some Airs very much wholesomer than others, and fitter to preseve Men from Diseases; so a very private and quiet condition of Life, does much more easily than a more expos’d and turbulent one, protect most sorts of Men from Vices and Disquiets. But then on the other side, as there are some Men of such sound and strong Constitutions, that they will enjoy their Health in the worst Airs, when Men of tender and vitiated Complexions will be Sickly in the best; so there are some generous and steady Souls, that will pass thorow the most troublesome and most expos’d courses of Life, with more of both Innocence and Contentment, than others can enjoy in a condition far remoter from Disturbances and Temptations. And, annexes Eusebius, (purposely raising his Voice) as for these Villages that Lindamor thought so happy, I must dissent from him as long as I see they can admire, and almost worship, a Man for wearing a Gaudy suit of Cloaths, or having two or three Foot-men behind his Coach, before they know whether he be not a Knave, or a Fool, or both: For I shall scarce think, that he, who is himself posses’d with Envy, deserves mine.
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