If it did, we should be constantly and
infinitely miserable; there being infinite degrees of happiness
which are not in our possession. All uneasiness therefore being
removed, a moderate portion of good serves at present to content
men; and a few degrees of pleasure, in a succession of ordinary
enjoyments, make up a happiness wherein they can be satisfied. If this
were not so, there could be no room for those indifferent and
visibly trifling actions, to which our wills are so often
determined, and wherein we voluntarily waste so much of our lives;
which remissness could by no means consist with a constant
determination of will or desire to the greatest apparent good. That
this is so, I think few people need go far from home to be
convinced. And indeed in this life there are not many whose
happiness reaches so far as to afford them a constant train of
moderate mean pleasures, without any mixture of uneasiness; and yet
they could be content to stay here for ever: though they cannot
deny, but that it is possible there may be a state of eternal
durable joys after this life, far surpassing all the good that is to
be found here. Nay, they cannot but see that it is more possible
than the attainment and continuation of that pittance of honour,
riches, or pleasure which they pursue, and for which they neglect that
eternal state.
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