‘not radical, but palliative’

In memory of Brian F. Sweeney, and Madeline Amy Sweeney; though I share only a name, it’s by such flimsy bonds that you can look closely, with engagement, and in looking, know that the bonds are not flimsy at all.

‘The cure for the greatest part of human miseries is not radical, but palliative. Infelicity is involved in corporeal nature, and interwoven with our being; all attempts therefore to decline it wholly are useless and vain: the armies of pain send their arrows against us on every side, the choice is only between those which are more or less sharp, or tinged with poison of greater or less malignity; and the strongest armour which reason can supply, will only blunt their points, but cannot repel them.

‘The great remedy which heaven has put in our hands is patience, by which, though we cannot lessen the torments of the body, we can in a great measure preserve the peace of the mind, and shall suffer only the natural and genuine force of an evil, without heightening its acrimony, or prolonging its effects.’ — Rambler 32