Living with Contentment in the Present: Selections from the Works of Pierre Gassendi (vegetarian), Part 1 of 2

Today, it is a pleasure to present selections from “Three Discourses of Happiness, Virtue, and Liberty – Collected from the Works of the Learn’d Gassendi by Monsieur Bernier.”

THE FIRST BOOK CONCERNING HAPPINESS CHAPTER 1: What Happiness Is

The fourth particular relates to the time to come, and forbids either impatiently to expect, or totally to despair; that so we may not feed ourselves with vain hopes, nor depend upon that, which neither is, nor it may be ever shall happen.

“For fortune being of its own nature changeable and inconstant, nothing that is within her power can be foreseen, or relied upon with so much certainty, but it may often deceive him who expects it. So that it is much our surer way, not absolutely to despair of the things that we foresee, nor yet to be too much assured of them as infallible; and in the mean while to prepare our selves in such a manner for all events, that in case it happens otherwise than we expect, we may not think our selves deprived of a thing which is of absolute necessity to us. […]”

The fifth particular is but a disgrace or reproach to mankind; for by deferring from day to day, their life passes away without any profit, always depending upon the time to come.

“[…] That the wise man ought so to reckon, as if he considered every day of his life as the last, and as that which was to complete the circle; for by this means he will not put off the pleasure of the enjoyment ‘till the morrow; and if he arrives to tomorrow, that day will be so much the more pleasant, it being the less expected, and being added as an overplus to the rest; it will be looked upon as an advantage, and esteemed as pure gain. […] Let us quietly make use of this present time, never reckoning upon that which is to come. Be not inquisitive what shall happen tomorrow; but as if you were to die this very day, look upon it as an advantage, if Providence grants you any longer continuance. […]”

“Wherefore do we spend our days in continual cares and troubles, tormented with vain fears, and greedy desires? We grow old in endless vexation, we lose our life in seeking it, and without enjoying the end of our desires; we are always labouring to live, and never really live.”