On Contentment.

SPECTATOR, No. 574.

1.  I was once engaged in discourse with a Rosicrucian about the great secret.  As this kind of men (I mean those of them who are not professed cheats) are over-run with enthusiasm and philosophy, it was very amusing to hear this religious adept descanting on his pretended discovery.  He talked of the secret as of a spirit which lived within an emerald, and converted every thing that was near it to the highest perfection it is capable of.

2.  It gives a lustre, says he, to the sun, and water to the diamond.  It irradiates every metal, and enriches lead with all the properties of gold.  It heightens smoke into flame, flame into light, and light into glory.  He further added, that a single ray of it dissipates pain, and care, and melancholy, from the person on whom it falls.  In short, says he, its presence naturally changes every place into a kind of heaven.

3.  After he had gone on for some time in this unintelligible cant, I found that he jumbled natural and moral ideas together in the same discourse, and that his great secret was nothing else but content.

4.  This virtue does indeed produce, in some measure, all those effects which the alchymist usually ascribes to what he calls the philosopher’s stone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing, by banishing the desire of them.  If it cannot remove the disquietudes arising out of a man’s mind, body or fortune, it makes him easy under them.  It has indeed a kindly influence on the soul of man, in respect of every thing to whom he stands related.  It extinguishes all murmur, repining and ingratitude towards that Being who has allotted him his part to act in this world.  It destroys all inordinate ambition, and every tendency to corruption, with regard to the community wherein he is placed.  It gives sweetness to his conversation, and a perpetual serenity to all his thoughts.

5.  Among the many methods which might be made use of for the acquiring of this virtue, I shall only mention the two following:  First of all, a man should always consider how much more unhappy he might be than he really is.

6.  First of all, a man should always consider how much more he has than he wants.  I am wonderfully pleased with the reply which Aristippus made to one who condoled him upon the loss of a farm:  Why, said he, I have three farms still, and you have but one; so that I ought rather to be afflicted for you than you for me.  On the contrary, foolish men are more apt to consider what they have lost than what they possess; and to fix their eyes upon those who are richer than themselves, rather than on those who are under greater difficulties.

7.  All the real pleasures and conveniences of life lie in a narrow compass; but it is the humour of mankind, to be always looking forward, and straining after one who has got the start of them in wealth and honour.  For this reason, as there are none can be properly called rich, who have not more than they want; there are few rich men in any of the politer nations but among the middle sort of people, who keep their wishes within their fortunes, and have more wealth than they know how to enjoy.