REFLECTIONS, UPON E X IL E*.. MDCC XVI. . Diffipation of mind, and length of time, are the remedies to which the greatest part of mankind truft in their afflictions. But the first of these works a temporary, the fecond a flow, effect: and both are unworthy of a wife man. Are we to fly from ourfelves that we may fly from our misfortunes, and fondly to imagine that the difeafe is cured becaufe we find means to get fome moments of respite from pain? Or fhall we expect from time, the phyfician of brutes, a lingering and uncertain deliverance ? Shall we wait to be happy till we can forget that we are miferable, and owe to the weakness of our faculties a tranquillity which ought to be the effect of their ftrength? Far otherwife... Let us fet all * Several paffages of this little treatise are taken from Seneca: and the whole is writ with fome allufion to his style and manner, 66 quanquam non omnio temere fit quod de fententiis illius queritur Fabius." etc. Eras. De fen. jud. our paft aad our prefent afflictions at once before our eyes *. Let us refolve to overcome them, inftead of flying from them, or wearing out the fense of them by long and ignominious patience. Instead of palliating remedies, let us ufe the incifion-knife and the cauftic, fearch the wound to the bottom, and work an immediate and radical cure. The recalling of former misfortunes ferves to fortify the mind against later. He must blush to sink under the anguish of one wound, who furveys a body feamed over with the fears of many, and who has come victorious out of all the conflicts wherein he received them. Let fighs, and tears, and fainting under the lightest strokes of adverse fortune, be the portion of thofe unhappy people whose tender minds a long courfe of felicity has enervated: while fuch, as have paffed through years of calamity, bear up; with a noble and immoveable conftancy, against the heaviest. Uninterrupted mifery has this good effect, as it continually torments, it finally hardens. Such is the language of philosophy : and happy is the man who acquires the right of holding it. But this right is not to be acquired by pathetic dif courfe. Our conduct can alone give it us: and therefore, instead of prefuming on our strength, the fureft method is to confefs our weakness, and, with out lofs of time, to apply ourselves to the ftudy of wifdom. This was the advice which the oracle gave to Zenot, and there is no other way of fecuring our tranquillity amidst all the accidents to which hu * Sen. De con. ad Hel. man man life is expofed. Philofophy has, I know, her Thrafos, as well as war and among her fons many there have been, who, while they aimed at be ing more than men, became fomething lefs. The means of preventing this danger are eafy and fure. It is a good rule, to examine well before we addict ourfelves to any fect: but I think it is a better rule, to addict ourselves to none. Let us hear them all, : with a perfect indifferency on which fide the truth lies and, when we come to determine, let nothing appear fo venerable to us as our own understandings. Let us gratefully accept the help of every one who has endeavoured to correct the vices, and Atrengthen the minds of men; but let us chufe for ourfelves, and yield univerfal affent to none. Thus, that I may inftance the fect already mentioned, when we have laid afide the wonderful and furprifing fentences, and all the paradoxes of the Portique, we hall find in that fchool fuch doctrines as our unprejudiced reason fubmits to with pleasure, as nature dictates, and as experience confirms. Without this precaution, we run the rifque of becoming imaginary kings, and real flaves. With it, we may learn to affert our native freedom, and live independent on fortune. In order to which great end, it is neceffary that we ftand watchful, as centinels, to difcover the fe cret wiles and open attacks of this capricious goddefs, before they reach us *. Where the falls upon us unexpected, it is hard to refift; but thofe who wait for her, will repel her with ease. The 1 *SEN. De con, ad Hel. fudden and them. fudden invasion of an enemy overthrows fuch as are not on their guard; but they who forefee the war, and prepare themselves for it before it breaks out, ftand, without difficulty, the firft and the fierceft onfet. I learned this important leffon long ago, and never trusted to fortune even while fhe feemed to be at peace with me. The riches, the honours, the reputations, and all the advantages which her treacherous indulgence poured upon me, I placed fo, that fhe might fnatch them away without giving me any disturbance. I kept a great interval between me She took them, but fhe could not tear them from me. No man fuffers by bad fortune, but he who has been deceived by good. If we grow .. fond of her gifts, fancy that they belong to us, and are perpetually to remain with us, if we lean upon them, and expect to be confidered for them; we fhall fink into all the bitterness of grief, as foon as thefe falfe and tranfitory benefits pafs away, as foon as our vain and childish minds, unfraught with folid pleasures, become deftitute even of those which are imaginary. But, if we do not fuffer ourselves to be transported by profperity, neither fhall we be reduced by adverfity. Our fouls will be of proof against the dangers of both these states: and, having explored our strength, we shall be fure of it; for in the midst of felicity, we shall have tried how we can bear misfortune. It is much harder to examine and judge, than to take up opinions on truft; and therefore the far greatest part of the world borrow, from others, thofe which they entertain concerning all the affairs of life and and death. Hence it proceeds that men are fo unanimously eager in the purfuit of things, which, far from having any inherent real good, are varnished over with a specious and deceitful glofs, and contain nothing anfwerable to their appearances +. Hence it proceeds, on the other hand, that, in thofe things which are called evils, there is nothing fo hard and terrible as the general cry of the world threatens. The word exile comes indeed harsh to the ear, and ftrikes us like a melancholy and execrable found, through a certain perfuafion which men have habitually concurred in. Thus the multitude has orBut the greatest part of their ordinances are abrogated by the wife. dained. and con that this Rejecting therefore the judgement of those who determine according to popular opinions, or the first appearances of things, let us examine what exile really is t. It is, then, a change of place; and, left you fhould fay that I diminish the object, ceal the most shocking parts of it, I add, change of place is frequently accompanied by fome or all of the following inconveniencies: by the lofs of the estate which we enjoyed, and the rank which we held; by the lofs of that confideration and power which we were in poffeffion of; by a feparation from our family and our friends; by the contempt which we may fall into; by the ignominy with which those who have driven us abroad, will endeavour to fully. * Dum unufquifque mavult credere, quam judicare, nunquam de vita judicatur, femper creditur.. SEN. De vita beat. SEN, De con. ad, Hel. the |