SECT. XI.
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.