From Book XIII, Chapter vi, of Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, on the importance of being born with a pacific mental nature:

... As his temper therefore was naturally sanguine, he indulged it on this occasion, and his imagination worked up a thousand conceits, to favour and support his expectations of meeting his dear Sophia in the evening.

Reader, if thou hast any good wishes towards me, I will fully repay them by wishing thee to be possessed of this sanguine disposition of mind; since, after having read much and considered long on that subject of happiness which hath employed so many great pens, I am almost inclined to fix it in the possession of this temper; which puts us, in a manner, out of the reach of Fortune, and makes us happy without her assistance. Indeed, the sensations of pleasure it gives are much more constant as well as much keener, than those which that blind lady bestows; nature having wisely contrived, that some satiety and languor should be annexed to all our real enjoyments, lest we should be so taken up by them, as to be stopt from further pursuits. ...

(see also CatfightClub (5 Sep 2003), FlagranteDelictoPhilosopher (19 Sep 2003), AntientCommons (3 Nov 2003), PilingOn (18 Nov 2003), ProfessionalVsPrivateLife (25 Nov), ImpossibleUsage (4 Dec 2003), ... )

TopicLiterature - TopicHumor - 2003-12-12

(correlates: SubtopicTomJones, ImpossibleUsage, Financial Planning, ...)