Cor ne edito

Let not care corrode and gnaw your heart, lest you should fall into a state of despondency, and to avenge some disappointment or trouble, throw away all the blessings you enjoy, and with them your life. To this purport the Psalmist, «Fret not thyself, lest thou be moved to do evil». Por mucho madrugar, no amanece mas aína. The Spaniards say, early rising makes it not day the sooner, or too much anxiety and care will not enable you the sooner to obtain your point; and the Italians Cento carre di pensieri, non pagaranno un'oncia di debito an hundred cartloads of care will not pay an ounce of debt. Cura facit canos, care brings gray hairs, and «care», we say, «killed the cat». But who is without care, or can escape its fangs! «Man that is born of a woman is of short continuance, and full of trouble; all his days are sorrow, and his travels grief, his heart also taketh not rest in the night». And «you may as soon», Burton says, «separate weight from lead, heat from fire, moistness from water and brightness from the sun, as misery, discontent, care, calamity, and danger from man». Such being the state of man, and as we are assured, «that it is as natural for him to suffer, as for sparks to fly upwards», we should bear our afflictions with patience, by which alone the heaviest of them will be in some degree softened, and appeased. «Si gravis brevis, si longus levis». If the pain be very severe, it cannot last; if it be moderate and of longer duration, it may be borne. «Nullum est malum majus, quam non posse ferre malum», no greater misfortune can happen to us, than not to be able to bear misfortune.