Part I. A Private Life. William Penn. 1909-14. Fruits of Solitude. The Harvard Classics

William Penn. (1644–1718). Fruits of Solitude.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Part I

A Private Life


370. Private Life is to be preferr’d; the Honor and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it. The one is free and quiet, the other servile and noisy.	1
371. It was a great Answer of the Shunamite Woman, I dwell among my own People.	2
372. They that live of their own, neither need, nor often list to wear the Livery of the Publick.	3
373. Their Subsistance is not during Pleasure; nor have they patrons to please or present.	4
374. If they are not advanced, neither can they be disgraced. And as they know not the Smiles of Majesty, so they feel not the Frowns of Greatness; or the Effects of Envy.	5
375. If they want the Pleasures of a Court, they also escape the Temptations of it.	6
376. Private Men, in fine, are so much their own, that paying common Dues, they are Sovereigns of all the rest.	7