APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 127 



minute ; since, were our ears sharp enough, we need 

 not descend to the gates of hell to hear — 



sospiri, pianti, ed alti guai. 

 Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle 



— it seems to follow that, if this world is governed 

 by benevolence, it must be a different sort of benevo- 

 lence from that of John Howard. 



CCLXXI 



This may not be the best of all possible worlds, 

 but to say that it is the worst is mere petulant non- 

 sense. A worn-out voluptuary may find nothing 

 good under the sun, or a vain and inexperienced youth, 

 who cannot get the moon he cries for, may vent his 

 irritation in pessimistic moanings ; but there can be 

 no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person that 

 mankind could, would, and in fact do, get on fairly 

 well with vastly less happiness and far more misery 

 than find their way into the lives of nine people out 

 of ten. If each and all of us had been visited by an 

 attack of neuralgia, or of extreme mental depression, 

 for one hour in every twenty-four — a supposition 

 which many tolerably vigorous people know, to their 

 cost, is not extravagant — the burden of life would have 

 been immensely increased without much practical 

 hindrance to its general course. Men with any 

 manhood in them find life quite worth living under 

 worse conditions than these. 



CCLXXI I 



There is another sufficiently obvious fact, which 

 renders the hypothesis that the course of sentient 



