up, either in the fear of something worse, or in the hope of some good, which is thought worthy of pursuit. Hence the thoughts of the agent are at variance: and there is fomething that urgeth him on one hand, to execute his purpofe: and on the other hand, what draws him back, and deters him from the suspected peril; therefore, I fay, he is distracted in his thoughts: and where this is the cafe, all glory is loft: for virtue ever performs her resolutions with a steady and conftant mind: she is never afraid to enter upon action: Tu ne cede malis, fed contra audentior ito (b). But thou fecure of foul, unbent with woes, Dryden. The more thy fortune frowns, the more oppose. But you cannot go on fo boldly, if you think them real evils. This notion therefore must first be rooted out, otherwife fufpicion will traverse and stay thy course: or the mind will be forced upon that, which it ought to have undertaken willingly. The Stoics indeed feem to think the queftion, as firft put by Zeno, true; but the other in oppofition to it, falfe and vain. For my part I am not for treating these things logically; or having recourfe to the knotty quirks of idle sophistry. I think all this kind of business ought. to be difcarded: wherein he, to whom the question is put, is fufpicious of a fallacy, and being brought to confeffion, anfwereth one thing, and thinks another. Truth is to be dealt with in a more plain and fimple manner; and in order to root out all fear, we must deal more openly and manly. The things which by these fophifters are involv'd in fuch intricacies, I had rather folve and explain; that I might perfuade, and not impose upon, the hearer. When a general is leading an army into the field, there perhaps to die for their wives and children, in what terms will he exhort them! Look upon the Fabi(i) transferring the whole war of the republic upon one family. Look upon the Lacedæmonians in the ftreights of Thermopyla (k); without any hopes of victory or a return; when that place feem'd their deftin'd grave: what will you alledge in order to intice them to facrifice themselves for the republic; and ra-ther part from their lives, than their ftand? you will say; What is evil is not glorious, But Death is glorious Therefore Death is no evil. O most O most powerful harangue! who after this, would fcruple to give himfelf up to the drawn fword, and die upon the fpot? But what a noble fpeech was that of Leonidas, when he faid, fo dine my fellow-foldiers, as if ye were to fup in another world(1) They snapped up their meat; scarcely staid to chew it; nor did any fall from their hands. They went cheerfully to dinner, and to fupper both. And how did that brave Roman General address his foldiers, whom he ordered to take a certain place, which they could not come at, but by forcing their way through the vaft army of their enemies? There is a neceffity, my fellow-warriors, for your going thither, but none for your coming back. You see how plain and imperious, virtue, or true valour is. What mortal can your circumlocutions make more valiant, more firm, and steady? Such amusements are apt to break the mind, which ought by no means to be contracted and driven into difficulties, at a time, when it ought to be the more enlarged for fome great enterprise. you But the fear of death ought to be rooted out not only from the minds of a few hundred, or of an army, but of all men in general. And how will teach them, that it is not an evil? How will you overcome the prejudices of men, in every age, imbibed from their very infancy? What help will you find? What remedy will you propose for the weakness of human nature? What will you fay to animate men so, as to make them rush into the midst of danger? With what harangue will you avert this univerfal fear? With what strength of reasoning will you diffuade mankind from a perfuafion, so univerfal, and determined against all you can say? Will you ftudy captious words, and form petty questions? Know that mighty monsters are not to be quelled but by mighty weapons. In vain did the Roman foldiers discharge their flings and quivers against that large and cruel ferpent in Africa, which was more terrible to the Legions than war itself. Like the Python he was invulnerable, when from the vast and solid bulk of his body, the steely weapon, or whatever elfe was thrown by mortal hand, rebounded; but at length he was crushed by mill-ftones (m)And do you now throw fuch petty weapons against death? Will you encounter a lion with a bodkin? They are sharp things which you advance. And what is sharper than the bearded ear of barley? But their own fineness makes fome things ufelefs, and ineffectual. ANNO (α) Theognis, v. 1193. Ασπάλαθοι δὲ τάπησιν ὁμοιον στρωμα θανόντι. to the dead, To lie on thorns or tapestry, is the fame. (b) As they treated criminals, both before and after execution. (c) So Antifthenes ap. Laert. Τωχη κατασκευαστέον ἐν τοῖς ἡμῶν αναλωτοις λογισμοίς. For as it was faid with great applaufe on the stage Si regnum a me Fortuna atque opes Eripere quivit, at virtutem non quit. Fortune may rob me of my wealth and throne ; She can no more: fill Virtue is my own. (d) This must be understood of Decius Brutus, who, as Vellius writes, flying for fhelter to the houfe of one Capenus, a nobleman, was there flain by those whom M. Anthony fent in pursuit of him. For this contemptuous relation will by no means fuit with the story of the famous Marcus Brutus, the friend and affaffin of Cæfar. See Valer. Max. 1. 9. c. c. 13. (e) For this anecdote we must give credit to Seneca, as not related elsewhere. Lipfius gives you the like ftory of one Cneius Carbo, from Valer. Max. 1. 19. 13. who mentions the death of Brutus, but without this circumftance. (f) Aye, but to die, and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This fenfible warm motion to become A kneaded clod, and the delighted fpirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide To be imprison'd in the viewlefs winds, And blown, with reftlefs violence, round about Imagines howling!-'tis too horrible. The weariest and most loathed worldly life, That age, ach, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradife To what we fear in death.---Shakesp. Measure for Measure, (8) Plato alfo highly inveighs against the poets for making Death, terrible enough in itself, much more terrible by fuch their fictions and idle stories. Vid. de Republ. 1. 3. (5) To which some copies add that unnecessary hemiftic--- Quàm tua te Fortuna finet-not in Virgil. (i) Fabius (fo called from faba, a bean, being the first planter of beans in Italy) with his family and children, 300 in number, waged war with the Veiates, and were all flain to one man from whom was defcended this noble family down to the celebrated Fabius Maximus, Conful with Julius Cafar, Ann, M. C. 709. (4) Thermopyla] The ftraits between the mountains of Theffaly and Phocis; where Leonidas, King of Sparta, oppofed à vaft army of the Perfians. VOL. II. H (1) As (1) As I think it is fomewhere faid by Cæfar, Fight on, my brave fellow-foldiers, you will either conquer or fup with Jupiter. (m) Ne Python quidem vulnerabilis----al. invulnerabilis ---ne pilo quidem vel ne publis---Erafm. ne Pythio (i. e. Apollina) Suret. But I am more apt to think, with Pincian, that the whole fentence is not genuine. Or, if I may not be allowed the fenfe given it in the tranflation, I should fooner prefer Erafmus' pilo, (i. e. he was invulnerable to the pyke or spear) than either Python or Pythio. IT feems you are inquifitive, Lucilius, to know how I spend my time, even my whole time; and are pleased to entertain fo good an opinion of me as to think, that I defire not to conceal any part of it from you. Indeed we ought fo to live, as in the fight of man; and fo to employ our thoughts, as if the inmost receffes of our hearts were open to fome infpector. They certainly are fo: for what avails it to keep any thing fecret from man; when we can hide nothing from God! He is intimate to our fouls (a); and interpofeth himself in our common thoughts; so indeed as never abfolutely to leave us. I will oblige you therefore in your request, and will tranfinit to you in writing how I pafs my time, and after what method I generally act. I will, forthwith, make fome obfervations on myfelf; and what is truly ufeful and of confequence, review the day past. Nothing contributes more to the making men worse, as to their morals, than their not regarding their paft conduct. We think indeed upon what we are about to do; though this but feldom; and what we have done, is entirely forgotten. Good counfel however for the future depends, in a great measure, upon the experience of what is past. This, my Lucilius, hath been a complete day with me (b): not a person hath broke in upon a moment of it. The whole was divided between my couch couch and reading-defk: very little allowed for exercife of the body: I am oblig'd to old age for this; it puts me to very little trouble in this refpect; when I ftir, I am soon tired. But this is the common end of exercise, even to the strongest, Would you know, who are my companions (c) herein? One is enough for me, Eurinus, an amiable boy not unknown to you. But I must change him. He grows too robust for me. He fays indeed, that we are both at the fame crifis of age, forafmuch as we are fhedding our teeth; but the young rogue runs too fast for me; I can scarce overtake him; and in a few days I fhall not be able; so much he gains upon me by daily exercise. In a very short time there is a great distance between two that are travelling different ways. As he is going up, I am going down: and you know how much swifter the one travels than the other. Did I fay, I was going down? I was mistaken; for my age is fuch I am not going, but falling down. But would you know how ended this day's contention between us? why, as feldom it does between two racers, neither of us beat (d). From this, rather a fatigue, than exercise, I go into the cold bath; I do not mean fuch as is extremely cold: for I (who took fo much delight in bathing and swimming that even on the Kalends of January, I would leap into the coldeft pond; and as I was wont to begin the new year (e) with reading, writing, or dictating fomething, as a foretoken of fuccefs; fo began I to bath, by plunging into fpring water) first moved my tent to the river Tyber (ƒ), and afterwards had recourfe to the bathing tub: which, as I am yet pretty ftrong, and would have all things done as fhould be, the fun alone fufficiently warmeth for me. I spend not however much time in bathing; and after that, I eat a piece of dry bread, or bifcuit, and dine without a table; nor have I any occafion to wash my hands after dinner. I fleep a little while: you know my cuftom: my fleep was always very fhort; I reft, as it were a while (g); and think it enough not to be broad awake. Sometimes indeed I know that I have flept; but fometimes I only think fo. Lo! the noise of the Circus is continually buzzing in my ears, and fometimes ftrikes them with a fudden and univerfal fhout: however it does not chafe away my thoughts: nor even interrupt them. I bear the clamour moft patiently and the many voices, that are joined together in one confufed H 2 |