of? Tell me now what you please of rheums, and the violence of a cough, throwing up part of your lungs; and of a fever burning your heart-ftrings; of the most painful thirst; and of limbs and joints distorted and dislocated with pain: yet how much more fevere is it, to be burned alive; to be torn in pieces on the rack; to have red hot pads of iron laid upon the body; and a preffure made upon the fwoln wounds, to renew the pain, and make it pierce the deeper? And yet there have been those who have endured all this without a groan: nay more, they afk'd for no remiffion: and more, no word could be extorted from them; yet more, they laughed, and earnestly from the foul. After all this, will you not fcoff at pain? pa But your difeafe, you fay, will not permit you to do any thing; it prevents all manner of business. Be it so; fickness indeed restrains the body but not the mind; it fetters the feet of the running-footman and will tie up the hands of the cobler and blackfinith: but if you have learned the right ufe of the mind, you will still give advice, teach, hear, learn, be inquifitive, reflect, and the like. Besides, do you think you are doing nothing if you are temperate in your fickness? you will hereby fhew that your distemper may be conquer'd, or at least supported with tience. Believe me, Lucilius, virtue finds a place even in the fick-bed. Not only arms and battles give teftimony of a valiant mind, unterri fied by danger; the brave man is alike feen under his coverlet. You have still wherewithal to employ you. Contend ftrenuously with your difeafe; if it can neither compel you, nor perfuade you, to do an unworthy action, you set a rare example. O how great cause of triumph is it, to be look'd upon with admiration on the bed of ficknefs! look upon, nor fcruple to praise, yourself. Moreover there are two forts of pleasure; fickness indeed refrains bodily pleafures, but does not altogether take them away: nay, if you judge rightly it rather enhanceth them: the thirsty have more pleasure in drinking; and food is the more tafteful to him that is hungry: whatever we have been commanded to abstain from we now receive more greedily. But no physician can debar his patient the other pleasures of of the mind, which are still greater and more certain. He that follows thefe, and understands them well, defpifeth all the blandifhments of the fenfes. O, how wretched is a fick man! and why? because he dilutes not his wine with fnow; because he cools not his draught with ice, broken into it, and mixed in a great glass; because no oysters from the Locrian lake are opened at his table; because the dining room does not ring with the noife of the cooks that are bringing in their stew pans and chafing dishes. For this too hath luxury introduced; that the meat may not grow cool; that it may be hot enough for the palate, now grown callous; the whole kitchen attends at fupper. O how wretched is the fick man! he must eat no more than he can. digeft, he fhall not fee a whole boar, meffed up and fet upon a fide. table, as coarse commons; nor shall he have the breasts of fowls (for it is not the fashion to fee them whole) heaped up for him in different dishes in the larder. And what harm do you fuffer in all this? you shall fup as becometh a fick man: nay, sometimes, as if really in good health. But we fhall eafily endure these things, weak broths, warm water, and whatever the delicate, and luxurious, and fuch as are rather fick in mind than in body, think intolerable; if we once get over the horror and fear of death: and this we certainly fhall do, if we rightly distinguished the ends of good and evil: for by this means neither life would feem tedious or diftafteful, nor death terrible. For a life, taken up with reflecting on things fo various, fo great and divine, can never be cloy'd with fatiety. Eafe and idleness only are wont to give it a difrelish. Truth never fatigues the mind when traverfing the nature of things; it is falfehood alone that gives it a disgust. Again, if death makes his approach, and calls upon us, though fomewhat immaturely; nay, though he cuts us off in the flower of our age, yet the fruit of the longest life may yet have been gathered. Nature for the most part is open to the knowledge of the wife man; who plainly perceives, that virtue (or what is right and fit) is not enhanced by length of days. But every life must neceffarily feem short to those who meafure it by their pleasures, vain, and therefore infinite. Comfort: Comfort yourself, Lucilius, with these reflections, and at leifure perufe my Epiftles. The time will come when we may meet again and converfe together: how fhort foever that time may be it may be lengthen'd by knowing how to use it well. For, as Pofidonius writes, Unus dies hominum eruditorum plus patet, quam imperiti longiffima ætas, One day enjoyed by the Literati, is of longer duration than whole years among the ignorant and unlearned (). In the mean while adhere stedfastly to thefe precepts; not to yield to affliction nor put your trust in prosperity; to fet the whole power of fortune before your eyes; and to fuppofe that she will do, what he can do. An evil that hath been long expected, gives the milder stroke when it happens. 10 (a) In the time of the emperor Caius, who dreading his eloquence, was determined upon his deftruction, but he was faved by the declaration of an old woman, that he was in fo deep a confumption it was impoffible for him to live long. (b) It is always fo.-Pliny (Ep. 1. 22.) fpeaking of his friend Titus Arifto, fays, " He defired us "to inquire of his phyficians into the nature of his diftemper, that if it was incurable he might "chufe an immediate death: but if only ftubborn, and tedious, he might stand firm and struggle, as "he ought; for he thought it not allowable, to fruftrate the prayers of his wife, the tears of his daughter, and the hopes of his friends, if there were any grounds for these hopes, by putting an "end to his own life. A noble determination; and always proper! (c) Si poffis fanum fingere, fanus eris. Think yourself well, and all complaint will cease. (d) From this faying of Pofidonius, Muretus fuppofes that Cicero took in his Tufculat questions, In 1. v. Unum bene et ex philffophiæ præceptis actum, effe pæne toti immortalitati anteponendum; One day Spent well, and agreeable to the precepts of philosophy, is preferable to an eternity of fin. But more juft and fublime is that of the royal Pfalmift, One day in thy courts, O Lord, is better than a thousand, Pf. 84. 10. EPISTLE. EPISTLE LXXIX. On Wisdom. All wife Men equal. I Expect letters from you, Lucilius, with an account of what new things you obferv'd in your voyage round Sicily; and particulatly what you have learned of certainty concerning Charybdis. I know well enough that Sylla is a vast rock, and consequently very terrible to failors, but I should be glad to be inform'd whether the stories related of Charybdis have any foundation; and if you have obferv'd, (for 'tis a thing worthy to be observed) whether it is one particular wind, that forms these hideous whirlpools, or whether every tempeftuous wind alike difturbs that boifterous fea: and whether it be true, that whatever is fucked in, is carried under the water many miles, and flung up again in the Tauromenitan bay (a). When you have oblig'd me herein I will make bold to defire the favour of you to ascend mount Etna; which fome have fuppofed to have been somewhat confumed and lower'd by degrees; as they were wont to fhew it formerly to paffengers at a greater diftance than they do now (b). Though this might happen, not because the mountain's height is lowered, but because the fires are weaken'd and do not blaze out with their former vehemenence: and for which reason it is that fuch vaft clouds of smoke are not seen in the day time. Yet neither of these feem incredible: for the mountain may poffibly be confumed by being daily devoured: and the fire not be fo large as formerly: fince it is not felf-generated here, but is kindled in the diftant bowels of the earth and there rages, being fed with continual fuel: not with that of the mountain, through which it only makes its paffage. In Lycia there is a famous territory, which the inhabitants call Hephefion, where the foil is perforated in many places (c). From whence breaks forth a lambent flame, that is not in the leaft detrimental; the country therefore is ftill pleafant, and fertile, with good herbage, as the flame does not fcorch it, VOL. II. E but but only makes it shine with a faint and glimmering brightnefs. But for the present we shall wave this matter, and resume it again when you have inform'd me how far from the orifice of Etna are those heaps of fnow which the fummer itself does not diffolve: fo little danger are they in, from the neighbouring heat. Now, there is no reafon you should say that I impofe this work upon you; for I know, you would indulge your poetical vein herein, though no one required it of you; nay, it would be in vain to pretend to bribe you, not to undertake a description of Etna in verfe, or not to treat on a fubject that has been thought fo worthy the pen of all the poets: For tho' Virgil had before elegantly and fully described it; this did not prevent Ovid from the attempt; and neither of them debarred Cornelius Severus from writing on the fame fubject. It is a subject moreover fo happily copious, that they who have gone before, seem by no means to have exhausted it, but to have opened matter for further explanation. There is also a great difference, whether you undertake a subject that is quite exhausted, or fuch a one as only exhibits a rough draught; for this daily increases, and fupplies room for further invention. Add likewise that the last writer hath generally the greatest advantage. He finds: words already prepared, which, under a different arrangement, put on the femblance of fomething new; nor does he ufe them as the property' of another, but as things in common; and the lawyers say, that what is in common no one can claim as his own property. If I know you then, your mouth waters, as they fay, at a defcription of Etna: you long to write fomething great and fublime, and to fhew yourfelf at least equal to those who have wrote before you. For your modefty will not permit you to hope any thing more: nay, it is fo great, that I verily believe, you would check your genius in its career, if there was any likelihood of excelling them. Such refpect you pay to your predeceffors. Be that as it will; know, that wifdom hath this peculiar good, among many other, that not one profeffor of it can excell another, but in the time and act of afcending: when they once come to the fummit of perfection, there is no room for any advantage of one above another. There is |