Manage all your Actions and Thoughts in such a Manner as if you were just going to step into the Grave; And what great matter is the Business of Dying; if the Gods are in being you can suffer nothing, for they'll do you no Harm : And if they are not, or take no Care of us Mortals; why then I must tell you, that a World without either Gods, or Providence, is not worth a Mans while to live in. But there's no need of this Supposition; The Being of the Gods, and their Concern in Human Affairs is beyond Dispute: And as an Instance of this, They have put it in his Power not to fall into any Calamity properly so called.³ And if other Misfortunes ( as we count them, ) had been really Evils, they would have provided against them too, and furnish'd them with Capacity to avoid them. And here I would gladly know how that which can't make the Man worse, should make his Life so? To speak clearly, I can never be perswaded that the First Cause can be charg'd with the want of Power, Skill, or Inclination; to take Care of these Matters. Or that Nature should commit such an Error as to suffer things really Good, and Evil to happen promiscuously to Good, and Bad Men. Now Living, and Dying, Honour and Infamy, Pleasure and Pain; Riches and Poverty, all these Things are the common Allotment of the Virtuous, and Disorderly; why so? Because they have nothing of Intrinsick Creditableness, or Scandal in their Nature; And therefore to speak properly, are neither Good, nor Bad.