pute; for in truth there is not fo much difference between ftoicifm reduced to reasonable intelligible terms, and genuine orthodox Epicurifm, as is ima gined. The felicis animi immota tranquillitas, and the voluptas of the latter are near enough a kin : and I much doubt whether the firmeft hero of the Portique would have borne a fit of the ftone, on the principles of Zeno, with greater magnanimity and patience than Epicurus did, on those of his own philofophy *. However, Ariftotle took a middle way, or explained himself better, and placed happinefs in the joint advantages of the mind, of the body, and of fortune. They are reasonably join. ed; but certain it is, that they must not be placed on an equal foot. We can much better bear the privation of the laft, than of the others; and poverty itself, which mankind is afraid of, per mare pauperim fugiens, per faxa, per ignes, is furely preferable to madness, or the stone, though † Chrys fippus thought it better to live mad, than not to live! If banishment, therefore, by taking from us the advantages of fortune, cannot take from us the more valuable advantages of the mind and the bo dy, when we have them; and if the fame accident is able to restore them to us, when we have loft them, banishment is a very flight misfortune to Compare the representations made fo frequently of the doctrine of volupty taught by Epicurus, with the account which he himself gives in his letter to Menaceus, of the fenfe wherein he understood this word. Vid. Diog. Laer. In his third book of Nature, cited by Plutarch, in the treatife on the contradictions of the Stoics. thofe those who are already under the dominion of reafon, and a very great bleffing to those who are still plunged in vices which ruin the health both of body and mind. It is to be wifhed for, in favour of fuch as these, and to be feared by none. If we are in this cafe, let us fecond the defigns of Providence in our favour, and make fome amends for neglecting former opportunities by not letting flip the last. Si nolis fanus, curres hydropicus. We may fhorten the evils which we might have prevented, and as we get the better of our diforderly paffions, and vicious habits, we shall feel our anxiety diminish in proportion. All the approaches to virtue are comfortable. With how much joy will the man, who improves his misfortunes in this manner, discover that those evils, which he attributed to his exile, fprung from his vanity and folly, and vanish with them! He will fee that, in his former temper of mind, he resembled the effeminate prince who could drink no water but that of the river Choafpes; or the fimple queen, in one of the tragedies of Euripides, who complained bitterly, that he had not lighted the nuptial torch, and that the river Ifmenus had not furnished the water at her fon's wedding. Seeing his former ftate in this ridiculous light, he will labour on with pleasure towards another as contrary as poffible to it; and when he arrives there, he will be convinced by the strongest of all proofs, his own experience, that he was unfortunate because he was vicious, not because he was banished. *Plut. on Banishment. If I was not afraid of being thought to refine too much, I would venture to put fome advantages of fortune, which are due to exile, into the fcale against those which we lofe by exile. One there is which has been neglected even by great and wife men. Demetrius Phalereus, after his expulfion from Athens, became firft minifter to the king of Egypt; and Themiftocles found a reception at the court of Perfia, that he used to fay, his fortune had been loft if he had not been ruined. But Demetrius expofed himself, by his favour under the first Ptolemy, to a new difgrace under the fecond: and Themiftocles, who had been the captain of a free people, became the vaffal of the prince he had conquered. How much better is it to take hold of the proper advantage of exile, and to live for ourfelves, when we are under no obligation of living for others? Similis, a captain of great reputationunder Trajan and Adrian, having obtained leave to retire, passed seven years in his retreat, and then dying, ordered this infcription to be put on his tomb: that he had been many years on earth, but that he had lived only feven *. If you are wife, your lefure will be worthily employed, and your retreat will add new luftre to your character. Imitate Thucydides in Thracia, or Xenophon in his little farm at Scillus. In fuch a retreat you may fit down, like one of the inhabitants of Elis, who judged of the Olympic games, without taking any part in them. Far from the hurry of the world, and almost an upconcerned fpectator of what paffs. in it, having paid in a public life what you owed to the prefent age, pay in a private life what your owe to pofterity. Write, as you live, without paffion; and build your reputation, as you build your happiness, on the foundations of truth. If you want the talents, the inclination, or the neceffary materials for fuch a work, fall not however in-to floth. Endeavour to copy after the example Be able to fay to your of Scipio at Linternum. felf, Innocuas amo delicias doctamque quietem. Rural amusements, and philofophical meditations, will make your hours glide fmoothly on; and if the indulgence of Heaven has given you a friend like Laelius, nothing is wanting to make you completely happy. Thefe are fome of thofe reflections which may ferve to fortify the mind under banishment, and under the other misfortunes of life, which it is every man's intereft to prepare for, because they are common to all men *: I fay they are common to all men; because even they who escape them are equally expofed to them. The darts of adverfe fortune are always levelled at our heads. Some reach us, fome graze against us, and fly to wound our neighbours. Let us therefore impofe an equal temper on our minds, and pay without murmuring the tribute which we owe to humanity. The winter brings cold, and we muft freeze. The fummer returns with heat, and we muft melt. The inclemency of the air diforders our health, and we must be fick. Sen. Ep. 107. Here Here we are expofed to wild beafts, and there to men more favage than the beafts: and if we escape the inconveniencies and the dangers of the air and the earth, there are perils by water and perils by fire. This established courfe of things it is not in our power to change, but it is in our power to as fume fuch a greatnefs of mind as becomes wife and virtuous men; as may enable us to encounter the accidents of life with fortitude, and to conform ourselves to the order of nature, who governs her great kingdom, the world, by continual mutations. Let us fubmit to this order, let us be perfuaded that whatever does happen ought to happen, and never be fo foolish as to expoftulate with nature. The beft refolution we can take is to fuffer what we cannot alter, and to purfue, without repining, the road which Providence, who directs every thing, has marked out to us for it is not enough to follow; and he is but a bad foldier who fighs, and marches on with reluctancy. We must receive the orders with fpirit and cheerfulness, and not endeavour to flink out of the poft which is affigned us in this beautiful difpofition of things, whereof even our fufferings make a neceffary part. Let us addrefs ourselves to GOD, who governs all, as Cleanthes did in thofe admirable verfes, which are going to lofe part of their grace and energy in my tranflation of them; Parent of nature! Mafter of the World! Fate leads the willing, drags the backward on. |