6 Of Adversity

It was an high speech of Seneca （after the manner of the Stoics） that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished;but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. Bona rerum secundarum optabilia;adversarum mirabilia.Certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the other （much too high for a heathen）: It is true greatness to have in one the fragility of a man and the security of a God. Vere magnum habere fragilitaterm hominis securitatem dei. This would have done better in poesy; where transcendencies are more allowed. And the poets indeed, have been busy with it; for it is, in effect, the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian: that Hercules when he went to unbind Prometheus （by whom human nature is represented） sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher: lively describing Christian resolution; that saileth, in the frail barque of the flesh, through the waves of the world. But to speak in a mean. The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude: which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearselike airs, as carols: and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more, in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needlework, and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work, upon a lightsome ground: judge therefore, of the pleasure of the heart, by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly, virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.