Page images
PDF
EPUB

concerning death. He called many friends about him: when fome of them, of a timorous difpofition, perfuaded him to act, as they should in the like case; while others, more inclined to footh and flatter, gave him such advice, as they thought would be most acceptable to him. But at last a friend of ours, a Stoic, a moft excellent man, and to give him his due commendation, ftrenuously brave, gave him, as I think, most admirable counfel, when he began as follows; Be not overmuch concern'd, dear Marcellinus, as if you was deliberating on fome affair of confequence; it is no fuch great matter to live; all your flaves, and all forts of animals live; but it is a great thing to die honorably, prudently, and courageously. Confider how long you must still be doing the fame thing; food, fleep, dalliance, fill up the round of life; fo that not the prudent and brave, or the wretched, but even the most delicate and effeminate may well be willing to die: this he faid; when Marcellinus stood in more need of an affiftant than a counsellor; his fervants loved him too well to obey him in this respect; the ftoic therefore first endeavour'd to root out their fears; and fhewed them, that domeftic flaves were then only in danger, when it was uncertain, whether their mafter came by his death, voluntarily or not(); and befides, that they would set as bad an example, in preventing him, when defirous to die, as in killing him (f). And then he exhorted Marcellinus himself to a kind and generous action: that, as, when fupper is ended, what is left is divided among the ftandersby; fo, at the conclufion of life, fome legacies were due to those who had waited upon him all his days. Marcellinus was of an easy and liberal difpofition, especially in those things that were properly his own; he therefore parcell'd out fome small fums to his fervants who ftood weeping by; and gave them all the confolation in his power. There was no need of the sword, or shedding of blood: he entirely abstained from food three days; and having ordered his pavilion to be placed in his bed-chamber, as also his bathing tub, he lay therein; and having warm water continually poured over him, he grew fainter by degrees, and as he declared, not without a fenfation of pleafure; fuch as a gentle fwooning is apt to bring, and as we have often experienced who have been fubject to fainting.

I doubt

I doubt not but that this digreffion will be acceptable to you; as you will learn from hence, that your friend made not either a painful or miferable exit. For tho' indeed he brought death upon himself, yet it was in fuch an eafy manner, that he rather feemed to fteal out of life. The relation likewise of this incident hath its ufe; as fuch an example of conduct is sometimes neceffary (g). We have often reafon to wish to die, and yet we are not willing; and when we really die, it is with regret.

No one indeed is fo ignorant, but that he knows he must die; yet when the time draws near, he flinches, he trembles, he weeps. Would you not think a man ridiculously foolish, who weeps, because he did not live a thousand years ago? it is equally abfurd, for him to weep, because he shall not live a thousand years hence. There is no difference between, thou shalt not be, and thou haft not been. In either of these times you have no concern. Your lot is fallen upon a point; which if you would prolong, how many years will you think to prolong it? why do you weep? what do you require? it is to no purpose. Define Fata Deum flecti fperare precando.

They are settled and fixed; they are conducted by a powerful and everlafting neceffity. You will go, where all things go. Is there any thing strange in this? you was born upon these conditions: your parents, your ancestors, and all posterity are subject to the fame. Α chain of causes, invincible and invariable, binds and draws all things with it. What numbers shall follow you, when you are dead! how many fhall accompany you in death! I am perfuaded that you would be more contagious, if thousands were to die with you: know then, that, at this very moment in which you make such a difficulty in dying, thousands of men, and other animals, are breathing their last by various kinds of death. And did you not think, you fhould one day reach the place, to which you have been travelling your whole life? every journey has its end. You perhaps now expect I should strengthen my exhortation by the example of fome great man; no, I fhall only give you one of a young lad: I mean, that famous Lacedæmonian, who tho' a stripling, when taken prifoner cried out in the Doric dialect, I

[ocr errors]

will not be a flave; and made good his words; for at the first vile and mean office that he was put upon, (the emptying a close-stool) rather than comply, he dashed his brains out against the wall When liberty is fo near to a man, fhall he submit to flavery? had you not rather a fon of yours fhould die fo gloriously, than grow old in idleness and dishonour? Why then are you difturb'd at the thoughts of death; when even a child can die fo courageously? and what if you are unwilling to go, know you not, that you foon will be compelled! transfer this power, to yourself (k). Will you not affume the magnanimity of a boy, and fay, I will not be a flave? Thou wretch, a flave to men, and, among other things, to life! for life if you have not courage to die, is fervitude. Have you any thing more to wait for? you have already enjoy'd those pleasures that make you fo dilatory, and still detain you. None of them are new to you (7); none, but what are become difguftful from fatiety. The taste of metheglim you know; and the taste of wine; no matter, whether an hundred or a thousand rundlets have pafs'd through you. You are a mere ftrainer. No one knows better the flavour of an oyster, or of a mullet: in short, your luxury hath left nothing in store for you to treat your palate with a novelty. And yet these are the things you are fo forcibly plucked away from. What elfe, I fay, is there that you complain of being robbed of? your friends, and your country? but did you ever honour them fo far as to put off your fupper on their account? nay if you could, I believe you would extinguish the fun itself. For what did you ever do that would bear the light! confess, O man, that it is not any respect to the senate, or forum, or to the nature of things that makes you fo backward and afraid to die. No; you unwillingly bid adieu to the shambles, though you have left nothing there untasted. You are afraid of death: and yet you feem to contemn it, in the height of your pleasures. You would fain live; for you know what life is, but you know not what death may be; and therefore are afraid of it (m). But is not fuch a life death itself? As Caligula was paffing along the latin way, an enchained prifoner, who had a beard down to his girdle, afked death of him: why, faid the Emperor, do you think then you are Still alive? The fame answer may be made to those whom death can in

any

Are

any way give relief to. you afraid to die? do you think then you are still alive? yes furely, you will fay, and I would ftill live; for I employ myself in many good and decent actions: I am unwilling to forego the duties of life, which I perform with fidelity and industry. What then, know you not, that it is one of the duties of life, to die? You forego no duty; for the number of them being uncertain, what was incumbent upon you is already finished (n). There is no life, that can be called long. For if you confider the nature of things, the life of Neftor or Statilia (0), was comparatively short; though the latter order'd an inscription on her monument, to fhew that he had lived ninety nine years. You see how an old woman can glory in her length of days. Surely her vanity would have been infupportable could she have completed her hundredth year. Life is like a play upon the stage; it fignifies not how long it lafts, but how well it is acted (p). Die when, or where you will, think only on making a good and decent exit (q).

ANNOTATIONS,

(a) S. V. B. Si vales benè. Muret.

&c.

But Lipfius rejects this form, as not exhibited in the MSS. nor agreeable to the custom of the times. See the last note of the foregoing Epistle.

(b) Vid. Lipf. Elect. i. c. 8. de frumentatione.-Suet. Aug. c. 98.

• Where stood a temple of Minerva, to whom the failors, as there was danger in weathering the point, made libation, according to Statius;

Prima falutavit capreas, et margine dextro

Sparfit Tyrrhena Mareotica vina Minerva.

(c) Supparum] al. feparum vel fipparum.-Luc. v. 428.

Obliquat lævo pede carbafa, fummaque pandens

Suppara velorum perituras colligit auras.
When loofing from the fhore the moving fleet,

All hands at once unfurl the fpreading sheet:

The flacker tacklings let the canvas flow,

To gather all the breath the winds can blow. Rowe.

Summis annectite fuppara velis. Statius.

-Non invehet undis fuppara. Manilius. Ubi communiter pro velis. Vid. Turn. Advers. xxi. 4. (d) Cic. de Sen. 18. Poteft quidquam effe abfurdius, quàm quo minus reftat viæ, eo plus viatici quærere? Can any thing be more abfurd, than the shorter a journey is, to lay in the more provision ?— See the Life of Seneca.

(e) Upon a debate in the fenate, concerning the death of Afranius Dexter, mentioned by Pliny, Ep. viii. 14, Lord Orrery observes, "the plain and legal question to be decided by the fenate was, whether Dexter had been killed by his freedmen, from their malice, or in pursuance of his own com

mand:

inand: if they were convicted of the former, the punishment was death; if it was proved that they killed him in obedience to his own orders, they ought to have been acquitted. The opinion of Pliny therefore is not to be juftified. He declares that the freedmen ought to be put to the question, and afterwards released. If they were innocent, why fhould they be punished? If guilty, why released?— Throughout the whole Epiftle the quibbles of the lawyers are much more confpicuous than the dignity of the Senator. Vid. Sidon. Ep. viii. 11.

(f) Invitum quifervat idem facit occidenti. Hor. A. P. 467.

For 'tis a greater cruelty to kill

Than to preferve a man against his will.

(g) God forbid that fuicide fhould ever be thought necessary among heathens, much lefs among Christians. When Nature speaks for herself, even the Stoics with whom it was an avowed doctrine, speak in a fofter tone. For thus Epictetus, 1. i. c. 9. "My friends, faith he, wait for God, till he shall give the fignal, and difmifs you this service; then return to him. For the present be content to remain in this poft, where he has placed you. Stay; depart not inconfiderately.' Stay; depart not inconfiderately." And again, with an entire refignation to the divine will-Whatever poft or rank thou shalt affign me, like Socrates, I will die a thousand deaths rather than defert thee. Nor can it by any means be pretended that when we meet with great adversities in life, it is a call from God to quit it; on the contrary, it is a call to the exercife of patience, refignation, and fortitude.

(4) Epp. 24.

(1) Ep. 24.

Rebus in adverfis facile eft contemnere vitam :

Fortiter ille facit qui mifer effe poteft,

'Tis eafy to fpurn life in wretchedness,

But far more brave to triumph in diftrefs. M. (N. p. q.) Sen. de Tranq. Animi, 2.

(N. r.)Lucretius iii. 1095.

Nec nova vivendo procuditur ulla voluptas.

Life adds no new delight to thofe poffefs'd.

(m) Aye, but to die and go wè know not where?-Ep. 82, (N. f.)

See alfo the incomparable foliloquy in Hamlet.

(") (Non enim certus numerus quam debeas explere, finitur.) Pincean. reads it with an interrogation; num enim-Have you done all that was your duty to do?

(0) She was of a noble family, the daughter of Statilius the Conful, in the reign of Claudius. See Plin. vii. 48 It may not, perhaps, be right to mention a relation of mine with this noble lady; yet out of respect to the memory of my father's grandmother, Mrs. Combes, of Windfor, I cannot help obferving that she died of a fall (a violent death) at 107.

(P)

All the world's a stage;

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts;

His acts being seven ages.-(incomparably described in Shakespear's As You Like It.
Life's but a walking fhadow; a poor player,

That ftruts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.Id. Macbeth.

(2) Which title, the death recommended under the Note (g) can, by no means, lay any claim to, in any Christian or Heathen.

EPISTLE

« EelmineJätka »