Bird 181z

{
  "txid": "d02ad0ae13d34e7f7ff4b2b1c03fb497368d22006d09a450d298a5fc89f42818",
  "block_height": 945233,
  "time": null,
  "app": "peck.wisdom",
  "type": "reply",
  "map_content": "If it be true, that the _understanding_ and the _will_ are the _two eminent faculties of the reasonable soul_, it follows necessarily, that _wisdom_ and _virtue_, (which are the best improvements of these two faculties,) must be the perfection also of our _reasonable being_; and consequently, _the undeniable foundation of a happy life_. There is not any duty to which Providence has not annexed a blessing; nor any institution of Heaven which, even in this life, we may not be the better for; not any temptation, either of fortune or of appetite, that is not subject to our reason; nor any passion or affliction for which virtue has not provided a remedy. So that it is our own fault if we either fear or hope for anything; which two affections are the root of all our miseries. From this general prospect of the _foundation_ of our _tranquillity_, we shall pass by degrees to a particular consideration of the _means_ by which it may be _procured_, and of the _impediments_ that _obstruct_ it; beginning with that _philosophy_ which principally regards our manners, and instructs us in the measures of a virtuous and quiet life.",
  "media_type": "text/markdown",
  "filename": "|",
  "author": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "display_name": null,
  "channel": null,
  "parent_txid": "6b42acd168f165f26d9d2edd7e5fb364a3a034c734ef6f689d5230a438329e9f",
  "ref_txid": null,
  "tags": "classics,work:seneca_letters,chapter:24,paragraph:1,kind:paragraph",
  "reply_count": 0,
  "like_count": 0,
  "timestamp": "2026-04-17T18:35:49.000Z",
  "media_url": null,
  "aip_verified": true,
  "has_access": true,
  "ui_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_display_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_handle": null,
  "ui_display_raw": null,
  "ui_signer": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "ref_ui_name": "unknown",
  "ref_ui_signer": "unknown"
}

{
  "txid": "87dab37ea1a0fbdcfa3c8c18ca72dc4f8966911cac92e4f18dcd978e02478d59",
  "block_height": 945233,
  "time": null,
  "app": "peck.wisdom",
  "type": "reply",
  "map_content": "What was Regulus the worse, because Fortune made choice of him for an eminent instance both of faith and patience? He was thrown into a case of wood stuck with pointed nails, so that which way soever he turned his body, it rested upon his wounds; his eyelids were cut off to keep him waking; and yet Mec\u00e6nas was not happier upon his _bed_ than Regulus upon his _torments_. Nay, the world is not yet grown so wicked as not to prefer Regulus before Mec\u00e6nas: and can any man take that to be an evil of which Providence accounted this brave man worthy? \u201cIt has pleased God,\u201d says he, \u201cto single me out for an experiment of the force of human nature.\u201d No man knows his own strength or value but by being put to the proof. The pilot is tried in a storm; the soldier in a battle; the rich man knows not how to behave himself in poverty: he that has lived in popularity and applause, knows not how he would bear infamy and reproach: nor he that never had children how he would bear the loss of them. Calamity is the occasion of virtue, and a spur to a great mind. The very apprehension of a wound startles a man when he first bears arms; but an old soldier bleeds boldly, because he knows that a man may lose blood, and yet win the day. Nay, many times a calamity turns to our advantage; and great ruins have but made way to greater glories. The crying out of _fire_ has many times quieted a fray, and the interposing of a wild beast has parted the thief and the traveller; for we are not at leisure for less mischiefs while we are under the apprehensions of greater. One man\u2019s life is saved by a disease: another is arrested, and taken out of the way, just when his house was falling upon his head.",
  "media_type": "text/markdown",
  "filename": "|",
  "author": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "display_name": null,
  "channel": null,
  "parent_txid": "d96c8dc28bceaabe8016410634c71f0dd77b781c86d9fd56068d41dae26fb665",
  "ref_txid": null,
  "tags": "classics,work:seneca_letters,chapter:28,paragraph:8,kind:paragraph",
  "reply_count": 0,
  "like_count": 0,
  "timestamp": "2026-04-17T18:35:49.000Z",
  "media_url": null,
  "aip_verified": true,
  "has_access": true,
  "ui_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_display_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_handle": null,
  "ui_display_raw": null,
  "ui_signer": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "ref_ui_name": "unknown",
  "ref_ui_signer": "unknown"
}

{
  "txid": "c0a564114d9712c652fadddb0301c9a41efc4ddd3fab5992a9a83447bf2d4f01",
  "block_height": 945233,
  "time": null,
  "app": "peck.wisdom",
  "type": "reply",
  "map_content": "It is dangerous for a man too suddenly, or too easily, to believe himself. Wherefore let us examine, observe, and inspect our own hearts, for we ourselves are our own greatest flatterers: we should every night call ourselves to account, \u201cWhat infirmity have I mastered to-day? what passion opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired?\u201d Our vices will abate of themselves, if they be brought every day to the shrift. Oh the blessed sleep that follows such a diary! Oh the tranquillity, liberty, and greatness of that mind that is a spy upon itself, and a private censor of its own manners! It is my custom (says our author) every night, so soon as the candle is out, to run over all the words and actions of the past day; and I let nothing escape me; for why should I fear the sight of my own errors, when I can admonish and forgive myself? \u201cI was a little too hot in such a dispute: my opinion might have been as well spared, for it gave offence, and did no good at all. The thing was true, but all truths are not to be spoken at all times; I would I had held my tongue, for there is no contending either with fools or our superiors. I have done ill, but it shall be so no more.\u201d If every man would but thus look into himself, it would be the better for us all. What can be more reasonable than this daily review of a life that we cannot warrant for a moment? Our fate is set, and the first breath we draw is only the first motion toward our last: one cause depends upon another; and the course of all things, public and private, is but a long connection of providential appointments. There is a great variety in our lives, but all tends to the same issue. Nature may use her own bodies as she pleases; but a good man has this consolation, that nothing perishes which he can call his own. It is a great comfort that we are only condemned to the same fate with the universe; the heavens themselves are mortal as well as our bodies; Nature has made us passive, and to suffer is our lot.",
  "media_type": "text/markdown",
  "filename": "|",
  "author": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "display_name": null,
  "channel": null,
  "parent_txid": "c2409c1409b9b934d4e7f87f6fecc4732d1181638bc57560480bb1a1c9f5c85e",
  "ref_txid": null,
  "tags": "classics,work:seneca_letters,chapter:26,paragraph:7,kind:paragraph",
  "reply_count": 0,
  "like_count": 0,
  "timestamp": "2026-04-17T18:35:49.000Z",
  "media_url": null,
  "aip_verified": true,
  "has_access": true,
  "ui_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_display_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_handle": null,
  "ui_display_raw": null,
  "ui_signer": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "ref_ui_name": "unknown",
  "ref_ui_signer": "unknown"
}

{
  "txid": "afcb25597f9ea8e6483ec850af9cecf8b5085d115654cc13031189077a212a90",
  "block_height": 945233,
  "time": null,
  "app": "peck.wisdom",
  "type": "reply",
  "map_content": "All this is no more than what I prayed for when I prayed for old age. All these things are as familiar in a long life, as dust and dirt in a long way. Life is a warfare; and what brave man would not rather choose to be in a tent than in shambles? Fortune does like a swordsman, she scorns to encounter a fearful man: there is no honor in the victory where there is no danger in the way to it; she tries Mucius by _fire_; Rutilius by _exile_; Socrates by _poison_; Cato by _death_.",
  "media_type": "text/markdown",
  "filename": "|",
  "author": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "display_name": null,
  "channel": null,
  "parent_txid": "d96c8dc28bceaabe8016410634c71f0dd77b781c86d9fd56068d41dae26fb665",
  "ref_txid": null,
  "tags": "classics,work:seneca_letters,chapter:28,paragraph:5,kind:paragraph",
  "reply_count": 0,
  "like_count": 0,
  "timestamp": "2026-04-17T18:35:49.000Z",
  "media_url": null,
  "aip_verified": true,
  "has_access": true,
  "ui_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_display_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_handle": null,
  "ui_display_raw": null,
  "ui_signer": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "ref_ui_name": "unknown",
  "ref_ui_signer": "unknown"
}

{
  "txid": "3dc4943deec3a261a923e808a9f53ffe5f93049d8383d83f744aacc0e0bc4c2d",
  "block_height": 945233,
  "time": null,
  "app": "peck.wisdom",
  "type": "reply",
  "map_content": "For virtue is open to all; as well to servants and exiles, as to princes: it is profitable to the world and to itself, at all distances and in all conditions; and there is no difficulty can excuse a man from the exercise of it; and it is only to be found in a wise man, though there may be some faint resemblances of it in the common people. The Stoics hold all virtues to be equal; but yet there is great variety in the matter they have to work upon, according as it is larger or narrower, illustrious or less noble, of more or less extent; as all good men are equal, that is to say, as they are good; but yet one may be young, another old; one may be rich, another poor; one eminent and powerful, another unknown and obscure. There are many things which have little or no grace in themselves, and are yet glorious and remarkable by virtue. Nothing can be good which gives neither greatness nor security to the mind; but, on the contrary, infects it with insolence, arrogance, and tumor: nor does virtue dwell upon the tip of the tongue, but in the temple of a purified heart. He that depends upon any other good becomes covetous of life, and what belongs to it; which exposes a man to appetites that are vast, unlimited, and intolerable. Virtue is free and indefatigable, and accompanied with concord and gracefulness; whereas pleasure is mean, servile, transitory, tiresome, and sickly and scarce outlives the tasting of it: it is the good of the belly, and not of the man; and only the felicity of brutes. Who does not know that fools enjoy their pleasures, and that there is great variety in the entertainments of wickedness? Nay, the mind itself has its variety of perverse pleasures as well as the body: as insolence, self-conceit, pride, garrulity, laziness, and the abusive wit of turning everything into _ridicule_, whereas virtue weighs all this, and corrects it.",
  "media_type": "text/markdown",
  "filename": "|",
  "author": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "display_name": null,
  "channel": null,
  "parent_txid": "ef7d4249485070c51a63d212c4e743cf9414036143e48311f51cd3664ef2f70a",
  "ref_txid": null,
  "tags": "classics,work:seneca_letters,chapter:23,paragraph:10,kind:paragraph",
  "reply_count": 0,
  "like_count": 0,
  "timestamp": "2026-04-17T18:35:49.000Z",
  "media_url": null,
  "aip_verified": true,
  "has_access": true,
  "ui_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_display_name": "181zh1\u2026wGWT",
  "ui_handle": null,
  "ui_display_raw": null,
  "ui_signer": "181zh1KYzqwUM3jCXLQdWBPmyxQXNjwGWT",
  "ref_ui_name": "unknown",
  "ref_ui_signer": "unknown"
}