I find the on-line Pepys diary strangely consoling. On just about any given day, I can go to his weblog and discover that he, too, has been fretting about money (never quite enough), the weather (usually bad), and the current political situation (unsettled and disturbing). Some people might be depressed by this lack of evident progress in the betterment of the human condition since 1660, but I draw a certain comfort from the you-are-not-aloneness of it all.