I am not now heaping up these illustrations for the purpose of exercising my wit, but for the purpose of encouraging you to face that which is thought to be most terrible.
You write me that you are anxious about the result of a lawsuit, with which an angry opponent is threatening you; and you expect me to advise you to picture to yourself a happier issue, and to rest in the allurements of hope.
Philosophy itself, however, should be practised with calmness and moderation.
The first thing which philosophy undertakes to give is fellow-feeling with all men; in other words, sympathy and sociability.