the very Habit you
mention, that I am able to support my present Misfortunes a little like a Man.«
    The Gentleman smiled at this, and cried, »Indeed, Captain, you are a young
Philosopher.«
    »I think,« cries Booth, »I have some Pretensions to that Philosophy which is
taught by Misfortunes; and you seem to be of Opinion, Sir, that is one of the
best Schools of Philosophy.«
    »I mean no more, Sir,« said the Gentleman, »than that in the Days of our
Affliction, we are inclined to think more seriously, than in those Seasons of
Life, when we are engaged in the hurrying Pursuits of Business or Pleasure, when
we have neither Leisure nor Inclination to sift and examine Things to the
Bottom. Now there are two Considerations, which, from my having long fixed my
Thoughts upon them, have greatly supported me under all my Afflictions. The one
is the Brevity of Life, even at its longest Duration, which the wisest of Men
hath compared to the short Dimension of a Span. One of the Roman Poets compares
it to the Duration of a Race; and another, to the much shorter Transition of a
Wave.
    The second Consideration is the Uncertainty of it. Short as its utmost
Limits are, it is far from being assured of reaching those Limits. The next Day,
the next Hour, the next Moment may be the End of our Course. Now of what Value
is so uncertain, so precarious a Station? This Consideration, indeed, however
lightly it is passed over in our Conception, doth, in a great Measure, level all
Fortunes and Conditions; and gives no Man a Right to triumph in the happiest
State, or any Reason to repine in the most miserable. Would the most worldly Men
see this, in the Light in which they examine all other Matters, they would soon
feel and acknowledge the Force of this Way of reasoning: For which of them would
give any Price for an Estate, from which they were liable to be immediately
ejected; or, would they not laugh at him as a Madman, who accounted himself rich
from such an uncertain Possession! This is the Fountain, Sir, from which I have
drawn my Philosophy. Hence it is, that I have learnt to look on all those
Things, which are esteemed the Blessings of Life, and those which are dreaded as
its Evils, with such a Degree of Indifference, that as I should not be elated
with possessing the former, so neither am I greatly dejected and depressed by
suffering the latter