miserable because they don't know what they would have."
Cynthia smiled at Camilla's account of this fond husband; and said, she could easily believe that a strong affectation of sense, and a desire to be thought wise, might lead people into the most preposterous actions in the world; "for" continued she, "I once knew a woman whose understanding was full good enough to conduct her through all the parts she had to act in life, and who was naturally of so calma disposition that, while she was young, I thought her formed to be the happiest creature in the world. And yet this woman was continually unhappy; for she accidentally met with those two lines of Congreve's in the Double Dealer—
If happiness in self-content is plac'd,
The wise are wretched, and fools only bless'd;
and from that moment took up a resolution of never being contented with anything; and I have really known her, when any trifling thing has gone otherwise than she would have it, strut about the room like a heroine in a tragedy, repeating the forementioned lines; and then set herself down perfectly satisfied with her own parts, because she found she could with art raise an uneasiness and vexation in her own mind. For as people who really have sense employ their time in lowering all sensations which they find give them pain; so persons who are so wise as to think all happiness depends on the reputation of having an understanding, often pay even the price of continual fretting, in order to obtain this their imaginary good. And the human mind is so framed, that I believe no person is so void of passion, or so perfectly exempt from being subject to be uneasy at disappointments, but by frequently giving way to being discomposed at trifles, they may
