. Is the Actor esteemed happier, to whose Lot it falls to
play the principal Part, than he who plays the lowest? And yet the Drama may run
twenty Nights together, and by Consequence may out-last our Lives; but, at the
best, Life is only a little longer Drama; and the Business of the great Stage is
consequently a little more serious than that which is performed at the Theatre
Royal. But even here, the Catastrophes and Calamities which are represented, are
capable of affecting us. The wisest Men can deceive themselves into feeling the
Distresses of a Tragedy, tho' they know them to be merely imaginary; and
Children will often lament them as Realities: What Wonder then, if these
tragical Scenes, which I allow to be a little more serious, should a little more
affect us? Where then is the Remedy, but in the Philosophy I have mentioned;
which, when once by a long Course of Meditation it is reduced to a Habit,
teaches us to set a just Value on every Thing; and cures at once all eager
Wishes and abject Fears, all violent Joy and Grief concerning Objects which
cannot endure long, and may not exist a Moment.«
    »You have exprest yourself extremely well,« cries Booth, »and I entirely
agree with the Justice of your Sentiments; but, however true all this may be in
Theory, I still doubt its Efficacy in Practice. And the Cause of the Difference
between these two is this; that we reason from our Heads, but act from our
Hearts:
 
- Video meliora, proboque;
Deteriora sequor.
 
Nothing can differ more widely than Wisemen and Fools, in their Estimation of
Things; but as both act from their uppermost Passion, they both often act alike.
What Comfort then can your Philosophy give to an avaricious Man, who is deprived
of his Riches; or, to an ambitious Man, who is stript of his Power? To the fond
Lover, who is torn from his Mistress; or, to the tender Husband, who is dragged
from his Wife? Do you really think, that any Meditations on the Shortness of
Life will soothe them in their Afflictions? Is not this very Shortness itself
one of their Afflictions? And if the Evil they suffer be a temporary Deprivation
of what they love, will they not think their Fate the harder, and lament the
more, that they are to lose any Part of an Enjoyment, to which there is so short
and so uncertain a Period?«
    »I beg Leave, Sir,« said the Gentleman, »to distinguish here.
