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For Plato compared our life to a game at dice, where
we ought to throw for what is most commodious for us,
but when we have thrown, to make the best of our casts.
[p. 142]
We cannot make what chances we please turn up, if we
play fair; this lies out of our power. That which is within
our power, and is our duty if we are wise, is to accept patiently what Fortune shall allot us, and so to adjust things
in their proper places, that what is our own may be disposed of to the best advantage, and what hath happened
against our will may offend us as little as possible. But
as to men who live without measures and with no prudence,
like those whose constitution is so sickly and infirm that
they are equally impatient both of heats and colds, prosperity exalts them above their temper, and adversity dejects
them beneath it; indeed each fortune disturbs them, or
rather they raise up storms to themselves in either, and
they are especially querulous under good circumstances.
Theodorus, who was called the Atheist, was used to say,
that he reached out his instructions with the right hand,
and his auditors received them with their left hands. So
men of no education, when Fortune would even be complaisant to them, are yet so awkward in their observance,
that they take her addresses on the wrong side. On the
contrary, men that are wise, as the bees draw honey from
the thyme, which is a most unsavory and dry herb, extract
something that is convenient and useful even from the most
bitter afflictions.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 1.
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