29. Gentleness and good humour are invincible, provided they are without
hypocrisy and design; they disarm the most barbarous and savage tempers,
and make even malice ashamed of itself.
30. In all the actions of life let it be your first and principal care
to guard against anger on the one hand, and flattery on the other, for
they are both unserviceable qualities, and do a great deal of mischief in
the government of human life.
31. When a man turns knave or libertine, and gives way to fear,
jealousy, and fits of the spleen; when his mind complains of his fortune,
and he quits the station in which Providence has placed him, he acts
perfectly counter to humanity, deserts his own nature, and, as it were,
runs away from himself.
32. Be not heavy in business, disturbed in conversation, nor impertinent
in your thoughts. Let your judgment be right, your actions friendly, and
your mind contented; let them curse you, threaten you, or despise you;
let them go on; they can never injure your reason or your virtue, and
then all the rest that they can do to you signifies nothing.
33. The only pleasure of human life is doing the business of the
creation; and which way is that to be compassed very easily? Most
certainly by the practice of general kindness, by rejecting the
importunity of our senses, by distinguishing truth from falsehood, and by
contemplating the works of the Almighty.
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