Some Fruits of Solitude
In Reflections and Maxims
1693
Written during Penn's period of exile and hiding from political persecution, these maxims distill a lifetime of reflection on religion, government, friendship, and the art of living.
The Author's Preface
Reader, this enchiridion I present thee with is the fruit of solitude, a school few care to learn in, though none instructs us better.
Some parts of it are the result of serious reflection, others the flashings of lucid intervals, written for private satisfaction and now published for a help to human conduct.
The author blesseth God for his retirement, and kisses that gentle hand which led him into it; for though it should prove barren to the world, it can never do so to him.
Ignorance
1It is admirable to consider how many millions of people come into, and go out of the world, ignorant of themselves, and of the world they have lived in.
2If one went to see Windsor Castle, or Hampton Court, it would be strange not to observe and remember the situation, the building, the gardens, fountains, etc., that make up the beauty and pleasure of such a seat? And yet few people know themselves; no, not their own bodies, the houses of their minds, the most curious structure of the world.
3The world is certainly a great and stately volume of natural things; and may be not improperly styled the hieroglyphics of a better. But, alas! how very few leaves of it do we seriously turn over!
4This ought to be the subject of the education of our youth, who, at twenty, when they should be fit for business, know little or nothing of it.
Education
5We are in pain to make them scholars, but not men; to talk, rather than to know; which is true canting.
6The first thing obvious to children is what is sensible; and that we make no part of their rudiments.
7We press their memory too soon, and puzzle, strain, and load them with words and rules, to know grammar and rhetoric, and a strange tongue or two, that it is ten to one may never be useful to them, leaving their natural genius to mechanical, physical, or natural knowledge uncultivated and neglected.
8To be sure, languages are not to be despised or neglected. But things are still to be preferred.
9Children had rather be making of tools and instruments of play, shaping, drawing, framing, and building, etc., than getting some rules of propriety of speech by heart.
10It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things, and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain, and most reasonable.
11Let us begin where she begins, go where she ends, and we cannot miss of being good naturalists.
"Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world."
Pride
15And yet the most in danger of it are the least sensible of it. Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.
16The proud man is the greatest master of slaveries, and makes the most servile submissions.
17He flatters to be flattered, and will do what he condemns to get what he covets.
Luxury
18Such as are too studious of attire are commonly greater strangers to themselves than they are to the fashion.
19It is a reproach for a man to be so immoderate in his expenses as to pinch his mind to pamper his body.
20Is it a happiness to be one of the fools of fashion, to be led about, and made ridiculous to please, nay, to pay for it too?
Inconsideration
23Inconsideration is the greatest enemy to happiness, as consideration is the parent of it.
24He that thinks not, considers not; and he that considers not, errs.
25The thoughtful man is never surprised, but the thoughtless is always so.
Discipline
30If thou wouldst be happy, bring thy mind to thy condition, and have an indifferency for more than what is sufficient.
31Have but little to do, and do it thyself; and do to others as thou wouldst have them do to thee: so thou canst not fail of temporal felicity.
32The covetous man is never satisfied; no, not with the whole world.
Industry
50Love labor: for if thou dost not want it for food, thou mayest for physic. It is wholesome for thy body, and good for thy mind.
51A garden, a laboratory, a work-house, an improvement of grounds, works of husbandry and building, have their pleasures, and would be thought great felicities, if we had not been used to them.
"The best recreation is to do good."
Temperance
55To this a spare diet contributes much. Eat therefore to live, and do not live to eat.
56That is just enough which is sufficient for nature.
57A full belly makes a dull brain: the muses starve in a cook's shop.
58Rarely drink but when thou art dry; nor then, between meals, if it can be avoided.
Apparel
72Excess in apparel is another costly folly. The very trimming of the vain world would clothe all the naked one.
73Choose thy clothes by thine own eyes, not another's. The more plain and simple they are, the better. Neither unshapely, nor fantastical; and for use and decency, not for pride.
74If thou art clean and warm, it is sufficient; for more doth but rob the poor and please the wanton.
Right Marriage
79Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.
80If love be not thy chiefest motive, thou wilt soon grow weary of a married state, and stray from thy promise, to search out thy pleasures in forbidden places.
81Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment affection; it being the basest of passions to like when we have not, and despise when we possess.
82It is the difference betwixt lust and love, that this is fixed, that volatile. Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment: and the reason is, that one springs from a union of souls, and the other from a union of sense.
85Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.
86As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way to keep them well together.
Avarice
90Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.
91I have often wondered at the avarice of some men, who buy all they can, that they may have all; who, loving not to spend, yet suffer others to spend what they have.
92Such a one seems to me to serve only as a packing-horse to the prodigals of his family.
"He saves only to spend his strength to spare, and his cares to get what he never enjoys."
Frugality or Bounty
96Frugality is good if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last bestowing them to the benefit of others that need.
97The first without the last begets covetousness; the last without the first begets prodigality.
98Both together make an excellent temper. Happy the place where that is found.
99If it be the mark of a gentleman to be known by his expenditure, yet it is more the mark of a wise man to be known by his saving.
Balance
110We must not be too nice in the beginning of an enterprise, nor confound a great design by a pitiful execution.
111Nor should we be too slow: for opportunity is the cream of time.
Friendship
112Friendship is the next pleasure we may hope for: and where we find it not at home, or have no home to find it in, we may seek it abroad. It is an union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue.
113There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be penned up in straight and narrow enclosures.
114It will speak freely, and act so too; and take nothing ill where no ill is meant; nay, where it is, it will easily forgive, and forget too, upon small acknowledgments.
"A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably."
118These being the qualities of a friend, we are to find them before we choose one.
119The covetous, the angry, the proud, the jealous, the talkative, cannot but make ill friends, as well as the false.
120There are three degrees of friendship: perfect, entire, and ordinary.
Qualities of a Friend
125A true friend loves us for ourselves alone, desires not our goods, but only our good.
126Such is the truth of friendship, that where it truly exists, there can be no separate interest. The joys and sorrows of friends are the same.
127A friend that lets us know our faults, and who will reprove us freely, is better than one who will deceive us with false praises, or will flatter us in our errors.
Caution and Conduct
130Be not easily acquainted, lest finding reason to cool, thou makest an enemy instead of a friend.
131Choose a friend as thou dost a wife, till death separate you.
132Yet be not so tenacious of thy choice, as not to see thy friend's faults; for that argues more blindness than love.
Conversation
140In conversation, be not impertinent. Consider what thou speakest, or art about to speak, in relation to what others have said.
141Be not too sudden in thy thoughts, nor lavish of thy words. Let thy discourse be methodical and pertinent.
142Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.
"Silence is wisdom where speaking is folly."
Truth
150Truth is the judgment of truth, the touchstone of all things.
"Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers."
152Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other.
153The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask, they will know one another, though the divers liveries they wear here make them strangers.
Justice
160Justice is justly represented blind, because she sees no difference in the parties concerned.
161She has but one scale and weight, for rich and poor, great and small, high and low.
162Her sentence is not guided by the person, but the cause.
163Impartiality is the life of justice, as that is of government.
"They have a right to censure that have a heart to help: the rest is cruelty, not justice."
Passion
180It is a great mastery to keep passion within measure; but a greater to abstain from it.
181The ancients did excellently figure passion by Etna, breathing fire; for passion is that natural heat which animates us, and, being well tempered, makes us active and lively.
"Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us."
183The most passionate are the least wise; for passion and reason seldom agree.
Personal Caution
190In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an unjust interest: and endeavor to gain, rather than to expose, thy antagonist.
191Use no trick, nor show; for that argues weakness and degenerates the manner of thy proceeding.
192Prefer the plainness of truth to the craft of subtlety.
Knowledge
200Have a care, therefore, where there is more sail than ballast.
"Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment the treasurer of a wise man."
202He that has more knowledge than judgment is made for another man's use more than his own.
203Know then that learning itself, considered in itself, is nothing worth, unless it be directed to some good end.
Religion
230Religion is the fear of God, and its demonstration good works; and faith is the root of both: for without faith we cannot please God; nor can we fear what we do not believe.
231Pretences indeed are many, but where there is not an inward transformation, there is no religion.
232Religion is not an art, or an opinion, a thing to be learnt; it is an inward transformation, through which the human will is made conformable to the divine.
Of the Rule of Oneself
240He that has not command of himself will be unfit to take command of others.
241To rule is to be careful, industrious, diligent, early up, and watchful of thy charge.
"He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself."
243For reason commands, and appetite serves. Where reason rules, there is peace and order.
Of Government
250Government is of all things the most excellent, for without it there would be no order, peace, or security.
251Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too.
"Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad."
253That which makes a good constitution must keep it, viz., men of wisdom and virtue, qualities that, because they descend not with worldly inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth.
Of Public Servants
260They should be such as have experience in public affairs; such as know the temper of the people, and can manage them.
261They should be patient of labor, lovers of the public, men of truth and judgment, and enemies to bribes and corruption.
262For nothing destroys authority so much as the unequal and untimely interchange of power, pressed too far and relaxed too much.
Union of Friends
300They that would have the benefit of friendship, must be content to yield a part of themselves, that the friendship may be entire.
301Avoid all occasions of falling out, and where difficulties arise, labor to compose them with all mildness and moderation.
302For true friendship is a union of souls, not a match of interests.
Death
460They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.
461Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle, the root and record of their friendship.
462If absence be not death, neither is theirs.
"Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still."
464For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure.
465This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.
The Conclusion
Reader, thus have I briefly glanced at this lower world. I have not sought to please, but profit, thee; if thou art wise, thou wilt read accordingly.
If any thing in this little book may incline thee to virtue or dissuade thee from vice, it answers its end, and returns thee my good will.
Read, then, not as one reading words only, but as one who would understand and practice what he reads. Farewell.
Finis
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