You have cause, So have we all, of joy, for our escape Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe Is common. But for the miracle— I mean our preservation—few in millions Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh Our sorrow with our comfort. You, like all of us, have good reasons to be joyful. The fact that we escaped the shipwreck with our lives far outweighs what we lost.
Many people have also experienced what we have to feel sad about. But the miracle—the fact that we survived—has only been experienced by a few people out of millions. So, good sir, be wise, and weigh our sorrow against what should bring us happiness. Prithee, peace. By and by it will strike.
Soon it will strike If we allowed ourselves to think about, or entertain, every sad thing that happens, then the entertainer will end up with—. A dollar.
Dolor comes to him, indeed. You have spoken truer than you purposed. Yes, dolor comes to him. Though you did not mean to, you have said the truth. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should. Well, I have done. But yet—. Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow? The old cock. The cockerel. The wager?
A laughter. A match! Though this island seem to be desert—. Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible—. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance. Temperance was a delicate wench. Ah, Temperance —she was quite an alluring girl. Ay, and a subtle, as he most learnedly delivered. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.
