"He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatness of soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported with the later"
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Fielding links adversity and prosperity as two faces of the same moral test. The person who can withstand misfortune without bitterness has forged a steadiness of soul that will also keep success from swelling into vanity. What matters is not the external condition but the inner discipline that meets it. Greatness of soul, the old term for magnanimity, consists in a calm command of oneself; it refuses to be crushed by pain and refuses, with equal firmness, to be intoxicated by pleasure.
The thought resonates with classical and Stoic ethics that informed eighteenth-century moral writing. Virtue lies in constancy, in a reason-governed temperament that is not jerked about by fortune’s ups and downs. Adversity, far from disqualifying someone from greatness, can train the will, thicken patience, and temper desires. A mind that has learned not to be dejected by loss has already broken the spell of externals; such a person will take prosperity as a circumstance to be used well, not as a proof of superiority. Success then becomes a field for prudence and generosity rather than a stage for self-display.
This aligns with Fielding’s broader satire of counterfeit greatness. In works like Jonathan Wild, he exposes how pomp and power can pass for greatness while masking smallness of character. Real greatness, by contrast, is moral composure. Adversity reveals whether one’s values are genuine; prosperity reveals whether one’s motives are pure. Both conditions unmask the soul, and the same steadiness is required for each.
There is also a social wisdom here. Prosperity often brings temptations that ruin those untested by hardship: arrogance, prodigality, forgetfulness of one’s limits. The person seasoned by trials is less likely to be transported by flattery or dazzled by gain. By tethering honor to self-mastery rather than to fortune, Fielding offers a durable measure of character: bear what is hard without despair and what is good without conceit.
The thought resonates with classical and Stoic ethics that informed eighteenth-century moral writing. Virtue lies in constancy, in a reason-governed temperament that is not jerked about by fortune’s ups and downs. Adversity, far from disqualifying someone from greatness, can train the will, thicken patience, and temper desires. A mind that has learned not to be dejected by loss has already broken the spell of externals; such a person will take prosperity as a circumstance to be used well, not as a proof of superiority. Success then becomes a field for prudence and generosity rather than a stage for self-display.
This aligns with Fielding’s broader satire of counterfeit greatness. In works like Jonathan Wild, he exposes how pomp and power can pass for greatness while masking smallness of character. Real greatness, by contrast, is moral composure. Adversity reveals whether one’s values are genuine; prosperity reveals whether one’s motives are pure. Both conditions unmask the soul, and the same steadiness is required for each.
There is also a social wisdom here. Prosperity often brings temptations that ruin those untested by hardship: arrogance, prodigality, forgetfulness of one’s limits. The person seasoned by trials is less likely to be transported by flattery or dazzled by gain. By tethering honor to self-mastery rather than to fortune, Fielding offers a durable measure of character: bear what is hard without despair and what is good without conceit.
Quote Details
| Topic | Resilience |
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