Though it is by the benefit of nature that length of time thus blots out the violence of afflictions; yet with tempers too much given to pleasure, it is almost necessary to revive the old places of grief in our memory, and ponder step by step on past life, to lead the mind into that sobriety of thought which poises the heart, and makes it beat with due time, without being quickened with desire, or retarded with despair, from its proper and equal motion.

Richard Steele (1672–1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician

Essay (1710-06-06), “On the Death of Friends,” The Tatler, No. 181
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Steele did not provide a title when this essay was published in The Tatler. It is also sometimes called "On Recollections of Childhood." It was published under Steele's pseudonym, Isaac Bickerstaff.