 they are affected; or according to the different Tempers, which a Change of Constitution will, frequently, produce. If a Man is in Health, and finds Successes coming upon him from several Quarters; all is Summer, all is Sunshine, he sees nothing but a delightful World, and a wise and benevolent Disposer thereof. He feels no Want, he perceives nothing amiss; and therefore thinks that all is full, and that all is right. In the very next Hour, let the very same Man be but crossed in his Fortunes, or distempered in his Blood; and his Universe shall be covered with a sudden Gloom; the World, which he now beholds, shall be crouded with Objects of Wretchedness; divine Providence shall appear to him, as a daemoniac Dispensation of all kinds of Evil. And, though he may not dare to say, he will secretly think, that, if he had the Formation and ordering of Nature, he would, never have had the Malevolence to fill it with Tempests, Earth-quakes, Inclemencies; Plagues, Pestilences, Famines; Tumults, Wars, Devastations; Strifes, Violences, Murders; Griefs, Losses, Calamities; Rage, Vexations, Disappointments; Pains, Diseases, and Deaths.
Again Sir, I am apt to think, that there are very few Men, who do not depend upon this World for Happiness; as our first Parents depended on a Tree, a mere Piece of vegetable Wood, for the Conferring of Wisdom and Divinity upon them. They will tell you, indeed, that human Life is short; that even that short Term is hourly determinable, by a thousand trifling Accidents; that it is subject to a Number of unavoidable Calamities; that all its Joys are transient, and ever followed by a weighty reverse of Pain; and that, even, its best Possessions are attended by Cares that overbalance their Value. They say true, but, to what Purpose? They regret that Things are so, without learning to prize them the less; and they repine at the Miseries that are incident to Mortality, as it were, at a Distemper for which, however, they never think of providing a Remedy. They tell you, that the World is a broken Staff, yet they still lean upon it; they curse it, and, yet, cling to it as to their only Blessing. And thus, Sir, it is most likely, that, from the Beginning of Things, to their final Dissolution, each Man will be seeking, on Earth, for a Happiness, to which no other Person could ever
