Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
years , before he would appreciate the advice of a pilot , who , having weathered the storm , and ridden his own bark into some secure and tranquil haven , is the most competently qualified to steer the course of a younger brother through those numerous shoals and quick sands he himself possibly has had the good fortune to escape . For Expericntia est providential magistra .
Haud est virile terga fortuna dare . —SENECA . TUB decrees of Fate are equally as inscrutable as they are insuperable . The lot of man is cast in a mould of circumstances , which no human foresight and ingenuity can alter ; and he who childishly repines at afflictions and calamities , which cannot possibly be averted , being the links of a chain that destiny has forged , justly forfeits all pretension to the fortitude that characterises a strong mind . the fiction of the
Aud if this imaginary preternatural power , ancient poets , be translated to a more rational and more probable cause —the unalterable will of an overruling Providence—it will instantly be perceived that the vain regret and murmuring discontent of poor feeble mortals , avail as much in their endeavours to avoid the predestined events of an all-wise prescience , as a straw helps to preponderate the just and steady balance . Otherwise the foundation of all things would be annihilated , and flesh and blood would itself be paralysed in attempting to abrogate the preordained counsels of Omnipotence . Like the law of the Medes and Persians , which change not , so , only
No . XUV . —STRENGTH OF MIND EXHIBITED MORE IN BEARING ADVERSITY , THAN IN ENJOYING PROSPERITY .
in a more elevated degree , is the irrevocable decree of that chain of causes and effects , which the ancients called Fate or Fortune , or what , under a better system of religious instruction , is more properly designated the dispensations of Infinite Wisdom . To resist such a power is folly . To adopt the chances of life to its apparent direction is wise . To submit patiently to its reverses is prudent and courageous . The perpetual , although in many cases imperceptible , dissolution of when God beheld
matter from the primeval genesis of time , every thing that it was good , bears ample testimony to the uniformly regular decay that consumes the works of nature and art ; and this amazing revolution which daily operates both on the surface and within the entrails of the globe , can only be ascribed to the design of that eternal mystery , whose fiat rules the entire fabric of the universe . Of what avail thenthe rebellion of against the action of those
, man edicts ? All humau effort to alter those inflexible laws of creative wisdom must prove as humiliating and abortive , as they are impious and profane . Virgil , in dilating with his usual pathos , on the predictions of the ancient sibyls , thus describes in unison with the uninformed notions of that heathen age , the order of the Fates :
" Concordes stablli fatorom mmrinc Vatca . ' ' To endure then with stoical philosophy , or rather perhaps with Christian resignation , the " stings and arrows of outrageous fortune , " would more become the character and position of man , and conduce more to his individual happiness than to suffer either her ' ' frowns or smiles " to poison or effervesce the shallow cup of his existence on earth .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
years , before he would appreciate the advice of a pilot , who , having weathered the storm , and ridden his own bark into some secure and tranquil haven , is the most competently qualified to steer the course of a younger brother through those numerous shoals and quick sands he himself possibly has had the good fortune to escape . For Expericntia est providential magistra .
Haud est virile terga fortuna dare . —SENECA . TUB decrees of Fate are equally as inscrutable as they are insuperable . The lot of man is cast in a mould of circumstances , which no human foresight and ingenuity can alter ; and he who childishly repines at afflictions and calamities , which cannot possibly be averted , being the links of a chain that destiny has forged , justly forfeits all pretension to the fortitude that characterises a strong mind . the fiction of the
Aud if this imaginary preternatural power , ancient poets , be translated to a more rational and more probable cause —the unalterable will of an overruling Providence—it will instantly be perceived that the vain regret and murmuring discontent of poor feeble mortals , avail as much in their endeavours to avoid the predestined events of an all-wise prescience , as a straw helps to preponderate the just and steady balance . Otherwise the foundation of all things would be annihilated , and flesh and blood would itself be paralysed in attempting to abrogate the preordained counsels of Omnipotence . Like the law of the Medes and Persians , which change not , so , only
No . XUV . —STRENGTH OF MIND EXHIBITED MORE IN BEARING ADVERSITY , THAN IN ENJOYING PROSPERITY .
in a more elevated degree , is the irrevocable decree of that chain of causes and effects , which the ancients called Fate or Fortune , or what , under a better system of religious instruction , is more properly designated the dispensations of Infinite Wisdom . To resist such a power is folly . To adopt the chances of life to its apparent direction is wise . To submit patiently to its reverses is prudent and courageous . The perpetual , although in many cases imperceptible , dissolution of when God beheld
matter from the primeval genesis of time , every thing that it was good , bears ample testimony to the uniformly regular decay that consumes the works of nature and art ; and this amazing revolution which daily operates both on the surface and within the entrails of the globe , can only be ascribed to the design of that eternal mystery , whose fiat rules the entire fabric of the universe . Of what avail thenthe rebellion of against the action of those
, man edicts ? All humau effort to alter those inflexible laws of creative wisdom must prove as humiliating and abortive , as they are impious and profane . Virgil , in dilating with his usual pathos , on the predictions of the ancient sibyls , thus describes in unison with the uninformed notions of that heathen age , the order of the Fates :
" Concordes stablli fatorom mmrinc Vatca . ' ' To endure then with stoical philosophy , or rather perhaps with Christian resignation , the " stings and arrows of outrageous fortune , " would more become the character and position of man , and conduce more to his individual happiness than to suffer either her ' ' frowns or smiles " to poison or effervesce the shallow cup of his existence on earth .