§ 649

§ 649

My greatest enjoyments are those of my own mind to wich, for me, no others are comparable, whatever they might be. Therefore if I possess myself. I have every thing, having the main-point: but if I do not possess myself, I have nothing, whatever other things I might possess.

Hor. epist. 1.10.10, p. 243.

It is far otherwise with ordinary men: they borrow their enjoyments from without, and are rich or poor according to their share of them. Consequently my main-object in life must always be the free possession of myself, implying free leisure, health, tranquillity of mind and those comforts I am accustomed to, and the lack of which would disturb me. It is clear that all this might be equally impaired by the possession of too many exterior things, as by having too little of them. Ilor. ibid. v. 11. 12. A certain instinct rather than distinct notions of all this, and my good genius, have always led me to pursue and conserve that free possession of myself, and to care little for all the rest. — But now I must do with the full consciousness befitting my age, what heretofore I did by mere instinct.[127]

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