Read the below passage and answer the questions:
I had a peculiar method of wandering without very much pain along the stormy path of life, although, in a physical as well as in a moral sense, I wandered almost barefoot, - I hoped, hoped from day to day; in the morning my hopes rested on evening, in the evening on the morning; in the autumn upon the spring, in spring upon the autumn; from this year to the next, and thus amid mere hopes, I had passed through nearly thirty years of my life, without, of all my privations, painfully perceiving the want of anything but whole boots. Nevertheless, I consoled myself easily for this out of doors in the open air, but in a drawing-room it always gave me an uneasy manner to have to turn the heels, as being the part least torn, to the front. Much more oppressive was it to me, truly, that I could in the abodes of misery only console with kind words.
I comforted myself, like a thousand others, by a hopeful glance upon the rolling wheel of fortune, and with the philosophical remark, "When the time comes, comes the counsel".
As a poor assistant to a country clergyman with a narrow income and meagre table, morally becoming mouldy in the company of the scolding housekeeper, of the willingly fuddled clergyman, of a foolish young gentleman and the daughters of the house, who, with high shoulders and turned-in toes, went from morning to night paying visits, I felt a peculiarly strange emotion of tenderness and joy as one of my acquaintance informed me by writing, that my uncle, the Merchant P -- in Stockholm, to me personally unknown, now lay dying, and in a paroxysm of kindred affection had inquired after his good-for-nothing nephew.
What does the philosophical remark 'when the time comes, comes the counsel' mean? Choose the suitable option.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Help comes to those who need it at the right time.
"When the time comes, comes the counsel" means that when the moment of need arrives, the guidance or help needed will also arrive; there is no use worrying beforehand. The narrator comforts himself with this remark while looking hopefully at the "rolling wheel of fortune": his luck will turn when the time is right.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Time gives counsel to everyone. — Incorrect. Misread: the saying is not that time itself advises people; it is about help arriving when it is needed.
Option 3: God helps them who help themselves — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: this is a different proverb, about the value of one's own effort; the narrator is in fact waiting hopefully, not acting.
Option 4: Everyone needs counsel. — Incorrect. Too broad: this is a general statement that misses the point about timing in the saying.