Sunday, June 26, 2022

"In this state of universal uncertainty..."

Samuel Johnson:
In this state of universal uncertainty, where a thousand dangers hover about us, and none can tell whether the good that he pursues is not evil in disguise, or whether the next step will lead him to safety or destruction, nothing can afford any rational tranquility, but the conviction that, however we amuse ourselves with unideal* sounds, nothing in reality is governed by chance, but that the universe is under the perpetual superintendence of Him who created it; that our being is in the hands of omnipotent goodness, by whom what appears casual to us, is directed for ends ultimately kind and merciful; and that nothing can finally hurt him who debars not himself from the Divine favour.
*not being sure of the meaning of "unideal" I looked it up. It meant not ideal, un-ideal.

Samuel Johnson, The Rambler (1750-1752), No. 184, 1751.

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