13.  Such an extravagant cast of mind engages multitudes of people not only in impertinent terrors, but in supernumerary duties of life; and arises from that fear and ignorance which are natural to the soul of man.

14.  The horror with which we entertain the thoughts of death (or indeed of any future evil) and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind with innumerable apprehensions and suspicions, and consequently dispose it to the observation of such groundless prodigies and predictions.  For as it is the chief concern of wise men, to retrench the evils of life by the reasonings of philosophy; it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the sentiments of superstition.

15.  For my own part, I should be very much troubled were I endowed with this divining quality, though it should inform me truly of every thing that can befal me.  I would not anticipate the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually arrives.

16.  I know but one way of fortifying my soul against these gloomy presages and terrors of mind; and that is, by securing to myself the friendship and protection of that Being, who disposes of events and governs futurity.  He sees, at one view, the whole thread of my existence, not only that part of it which I have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity.

17.  When I lay me down to sleep, I recommend myself to his care; when I awake, I give myself up to his direction.  Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to him for help, and question not but he will either avert them, or turn them to my advantage.  Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the death I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it; because I am sure that he knows them both, and that he will not fail to comfort and support me under them.

A good Conscience the best Security against Calumny and Reproach.

GUARDIAN, No. 135.

1.  A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves a constant ease and serenity within us, and move than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can possibly befal us.  I know nothing so hard for a generous mind to get over as calumny and reproach, and cannot find any method of quieting the soul under them, besides this single one, of our being conscious to ourselves that we do not deserve them.

2.  I have been always mightily pleased with that passage in Don Quixotte, where the fantastical knight is represented as loading a gentleman of good sense with praises and eulogiums.  Upon which the gentleman makes this reflection to himself:  how grateful is praise to human nature!

3.  I cannot forbear being secretly pleased with the commendations I receive, though, I am sensible, it is a madman who bestows them on me.  In the same manner, though we are often sure that the censures which are passed upon us, are uttered by those who know nothing of us, and have neither means nor abilities to form a right judgment of us, we cannot forbear being grieved at what they say.