We must now consider the problem the individual faces when the circumstances of his life are such that he must take into account the effects of both good and bad fortune. Before I suggest how this problem is to be solved, let me clarify its terms. By bad fortune or misfortune, I mean the accidents or circumstances that are adverse or unfavorable to making a good life for one's self. In an earlier chapter, we saw that a life can be ruined at birth or in infancy or childhood by extreme misfortunes of one kind or another. What is true of these early years is also true of the middle and later years of life.
Extreme misfortune can be ruinous.
While this extreme is not likely to be as ruinous if it occurs later, it is still possible for excessive good fortune to be a serious impediment, for it involves highly seductive temptations. The individual who earns a bare subsistence by work that is drudgery is sorely tempted to fill the rest of his hours with diverse forms of sleep and play. At the other extreme, the individual who is surrounded by luxuries or who has the means of obtaining them is also subject to strong temptations that may have as adverse an effect on his life as deprivation has on the life of the unfortunate. By normal circumstances, then, I mean circumstances that lie in the middle range between the extremes of good and bad fortune. By abnormal circumstances, I mean circumstances that tend toward either of the two extremes, yet fall short of the limiting cases that are so extreme that no individual could be expected to surmount the obstacles they present.