Next the cure of sorrow; which is a mental suffering produced by losing something desired, or missing something pursued:* the cause of it being a greediness of desire after animal gratifications and bodily delights, with a supposition of permanence in regard to the baubles of the world. To cure this, we must consider, that the beings of this world of existence and decay are incapable of permanent endurance, as has already been shown under the cure for fear of death. Permanent and lasting belong only to intellectual concerns and spiritual attainments; which are exalted above the precincts of time, the bounds of space, the influence of opposites, and the inroads of decay.* By this course, the certainty we attain we shall preserve from corrupt desire and vain opinion: not setting our heart on the things of this world, which is a passing shadow, nay, a false idea,* but making it our endeavour to perfect that understanding and those high qualities which are imperishable blessings, and means of bringing us near to the holy and glorious Supreme; releasing ourselves from the house of envy, that haunt of end­less sorrow and thrice-piled tribulation, and settling in the dwelling of content, — that home of true enjoyment and perpetual peace; all which is inti­mated in the glorious text, Are they not holy Fathers in God? fear comes not near them; they sorrow not again.

If we would live in enduring peace, we must satisfy our feelings with what we have, and not be anxious for what we have not. We are told in the dicta, “Verily in his wisdom and to his glory is it, that God hath placed cheerfulness and happiness in con­tent and knowledge.” Should this appear difficult, let us consider men in their several classes, and observe how all, though each has his separate calling, (according to the text, Every class rejoiceth in his own,) delight in their peculiar practices and pursuits; even to regarding others with a contemptuous kind of pity.* Surely then the follower of virtue will not fall short of these benighted and bewildered classes; surely he will not fix his regards on the worldly baubles which are in others’ hands, or lay himself open to chagrin for the want of these. Thus it is that the holy Lord addresses the refuge of reve­lation in those words which embody all miracles: Fix not thine eye on that wherein we have endowed some among them with the flower of this world’s life, that we may discover them thereby. The philosopher Ptolemy observes, “The greedy man is always poor, even though he possesses the world, and the con­tented man always rich, though he hath nothing.”* Among the rescinded passages of the Kurān is the following:* If the son of Adam had two valleys full of gold, he would desire a third to be added unto them, and would find ample room for all except the dross.

Yakub Kandy has furnished us with a demonstra­tion that sorrow is not an inevitable matter, but a state into which volition largely enters; which is this.* Whatever object eludes the pursuit of what­ever person, undoubtedly there is a class, who, being debarred from that same object, are neverthe­less contented and happy; which shows sorrow to be no necessary concomitant of its loss. And again, whatever affliction or trial may overtake us, doubt­less the time will come when our sorrow will be changed into joy and our tears into laughter. He that desires the perpetuity of worldly enjoyments may be likened to a person who is present at an entertainment where each of the company partakes in turn, and every one has his moment for enjoying its refreshments, yet who wishes, when his turn comes, to appropriate the whole, not to pass it on to others, and gives way to disappointment and chagrin when they are taken away.* For all the things of this world are deposits from God, which he passes in vicarious succession to every class of his servants, and takes back again as soon as their inclination is unreasonably attached.* Imām Shāfei observes, “Property and retainers are nothing but deposits, and the time must come when deposits are to be restored.” Such restoration ought not to make a reasonable being dissatisfied, or to occasion him any sorrow or disappointment. Another great man declares, that if the world had no further fault than that of being borrowed, that alone would be enough to deter a man of spirit from paying it any respect. Socrates was asked how it was he was supplied so plentifully with cheerfulness, and so scantily with sorrow; “I never set my heart,” he said, “on any thing which it will grieve me to lose.”*

Cure of envy, which is longing for the cessation of another’s good, whether we desire the acquisition of it for ourselves or not.* If the feeling demand such acquisition, it belongs to the appetent power; if it only demand an unwelcome incident to the per­son envied, it is a vice of the vindictive power, without junction of the appetent. Now these are the worst of diseases. He that envies the posses­sions and enjoyments of others cannot fail to be worn out by his feelings: for a stop can never be put to the advantages redounding from God’s bounty to the people of his world, neither then can a stop be put to the sorrow and suffering of the envier. There is a dictum, “Envy devours good deeds, even as fire devours its fuel.” Of all envy the worst is that prevailing between men of learning. In worldly matters, piled as we are upon each other from con­finement of space, the case can never befall where the accession of good is to be looked for to one, without loss of it to another. Learning, on the contrary, is exempt from any such taint; for to it unquestionably and peculiarly no lapse or detriment can extend. In reality, however, the envy of this class is referable no less to worldly incentives. Now the cure of envy closely resembles that of sorrow.

Emulation is a longing for the acquisition of such advantages as are possessed by others, without desiring the passing away of them from others. This, if manifested with regard to worldly advantages beyond the sufficient and beneficial point, is culpable; if within this, it is praiseworthy; invariably so with respect to the advantages of the world to come, and the excellences of the spirit.*

Now any intelligent reader, who attentively con­siders these disquisitions, may be enabled, by their assistance, to undertake the cure of other diseases. In the cure of falsehood, for instance; let him reflect, that by speech we are meant to apprise others of what passes in our own minds; falsehood contraverts this end: so that to make this use of speech, is to place a thing out of its natural posi­tion; which is all we express by the term injustice. Moreover, the incentive to it is always a longing for some property or station, the viciousness of which longing has been found:* and so on of other vices.