as it were with Hereditary Family Vices and Scandals or had committed inexpiable Villanies in the overthrow of the State that these were carried in a By-road debarred from the blessed Assembly of the Gods But those who had kept themselves pure and uncorrupt and had contracted least infection from their Bodies but had alwayes drawn themselves into retirement from them and in humane Bodies had imitated the life of God that such had an easie and open return to those from whom they came and then he recounts how Swans which are not without reason dedicated to Apollo but because they seem to have the Gift of Divination from him by which foreseeing what benefit there is in death they dye with Melody and Pleasure so should all good and learned men do Nor could any one doubt of this unless it fared with us when we think earnestly about our Souls as it is wont to do with those that gaze stedfastly upon the Sun in Eclipse that they quite lose their sight so the eye of the mind looking nearly into it self is sometimes dazled and by that very means we let go the intenseness of Contemplation Therefore our whole discourse upon the Subject proceeds with suspence viewing round the Coast demurring crusing forward and backward as a small Pinnace beats about in the vast Ocean But these are old Instances and fetch'd from the Greeks Now Cato of late so parted with life as that he was glad he had gotten an occasion of dying For that Vicegerent of God which Rules within us lays a strict Injunction not to depart hence without his leave But when God himself shall give a just Cause as he did Socrates then Cato now and many often then truly will the Wise man joyfully escape out of this darkness into the light Nor yet will he break Prison for the Laws defend that but being so discharg'd and dismiss'd by God as by a Magistrate or lawful Authority he will depart For the whole Life of Philosophy as the same Author saith is a Meditation of Death CHAP. XXXI From the Sequestring it self from the Body in Meditation as in Death NOW what else do we when we call of our mind from following Pleasure that is the Body from minding our Estate that is the Servant of the Body when we withdraw it from managing State-Affairs and all business What say I do we then but call the Soul home oblige it to dwell within it self and draw it to the farthest distance from the Body Now to abstract the Soul from the Body is nothing else than to exercise dying Wherefore take my word let us practise this and sit loose from our Bodies that is accustom our selves to dye This both whilst we shall be on Earth will be like the Life of Heaven and when being set at liberty from these Bonds we shall ascend thither by this means the agility of our Souls will be less clog'd For they who have always been held fast bound in the Fetters of the Body even when they are knock'd off tread more gently as they who have been many years loaded with Irons But when we shall come thither then shall we live in truth for this Life is but a Death which if I were so disposed I could lament S. That you have enough lamented k in your Book of Consolation which when I read I desire nothing more than to leave this World but upon hearing the present Discourse I am much more desirous to do so M. The time will come and that speedily and that whether you draw back or hasten for Life is upon the Wing but Death is so far from being an Evil as you lately thought that I doubt whether any thing else be I say not no evil but any thing else be a greater good for we shall be either Gods or with the Gods S. What availeth it for there are many among us that give no credit to these things M. Now will I never in this debate part with you on such Terms as that you should be of opinion that death is evil S. How can I now I have been thus inform'd M. How can you do you ask there will come upon you whole troops of Gain-sayers and those not only Epicureans whom for my part I do not despise though best Scholars generally do contemn But my dear Dicaearchus hath most earnestly disputed against this immortality of Souls for he wrote three Books call'd Lesbian because the debate was held at Mitylenae wherein he would prove that Souls are Mortal the Stoics l they prorogue us as Crows to a late day of Death for they allow Souls to abide long but not for ever k In your Book of Consolation Upon the occasion of his beloved Daughter Tullia dying in Childbed Tully drew up into a Treatise all the Heads of comfort and distress delivered by the ancient Philosophers and applyed them for his own use which Book is lost though there go about a piece under that name l They prorogue us as Crows to a late day of death This is a Tradition from Hesiod that Crows live nine Lives of a man Aristotle denies it and affirms only the Elephant to out-live man SECT XXXII The Adversaries of the Souls Immortality confuted HAVE you a mind therefore to hear how though it should be so yet there is no evil in Death S. Use your pleasure but no one shall ever beat me out of Immortality M. I commend you for that but it is good not to be too confident for we often give upon some subtle Argument are shaken and change our Judgment even in clearer Matters for there is some obscurity in these Therefore if such a rencounter should happen let us be arm'd S. Well advis'd but I will watch that it may not happen M. Have you then any thing to alledge why we should not dismiss our Friends the Stoics those I mean m who allow that Souls abide after they are gone out of the Body but not always S. Ay those Gentlemen who maintain that which is most difficult in this whole dispute that the Soul may subsist in a separate condition but do not yield that which is not only easie to be believ'd but consequent upon that which they have granted that the Soul after it hath long surviv'd should not at all dye M. You rightly reprove them Should we then believe Panaetius dissenting from his Master Plato Him that in all places he calls the Divine the Wisest the Holiest n the Homer of the Philosophers yet this only Tenet of his about the Immortality of the Soul he doth not approve for he affirms what no body denies that whatsoever is born dyes but Souls are born as the likeness of Children to their Parents makes evident which appears in their Wits also nor only in their Bodies He brings another Argument for it Nothing suffers pain but what may also be sick and what is liable to disease that must dye but Souls suffer pain they therefore must dye m Who allow
death to be evil A few years after Socrates goeth into the same Prison and to the same Cup by the same perfidiousness of Judges as Theramenes did of Tyrants What therefore was that Speech which Plato maketh him to have made to the Judges after his Condemnation s And was a true Prophet of that death which soon after overtook him Theramenes being offended at the Cruelty and Oppression of his Fellow-Commissioners towards their Country-men was for terrors sake put to death Upon which there was a rout among the Athenians that were but suspected of Moderation and Greece was fill'd with Atticks in Banishment till soon after they banding under Thrasybulus took Phy distant from Athens twelve Miles and in a first Engagement with the Tyrants having the better in a second slew Critias with Hippomachus dissolv'd the Government and freed Athens from the Lacedemonian Yoke SECT XLI Socrates My Lords I AM in great hopes saith he that it will turn to my advantage that I am put to death For one of the two things must of necessity be that death either quite takes away all Sense or is a removal from this into some other place Wherefore whether all Sense be extinguish'd and death be like that sleep which sometimes giveth a most sweet rest undisturb'd by Dreams good God what gain is it to dye or how many days can be found preferrible to such a night as the perpetual Duration of the following time shall present Who then so happy as I but if what is said be true that death is a removal into those Coasts which those who are hence departed inhabit that is yet far more happy when you have pass'd thorough pretended Judges to come before real ones such as are Minos Rhadamanthus Aeacus Triptolemus and to consort with those who have liv'd justly and with integrity Can therefore this Journey seem to you unpleasant But to confer with Orphaeus Musaeus Homer Hesiod at what rate would you purchase For my part if it were possible I could be content to dye many times over if I could find what I now mention Then what incredible satisfaction would it be to me when I should accost Palamedes Ajax and others circumvented by the Sentence of corrupt Judges Furthermore I would sound the Wisdom of that Monarch who led the numerous Army against Troy of Ulysles and of Sisyphus nor should I because I made such enquiries as here I have done be therefore sentenc'd to dye You then my Lords such as have voted me not guilty never be afraid of Death for no evil can befall any good man either alive or dead nor are his concerns ever dis-regarded by the Divine Providence neither is this befallen me by blind chance nor have I any reason to be offended at those by whom I was accus'd or at those by whom I am condemn'd save only this that they intended my harm These things I thus consider and judge that nothing could fall out better But saith he it is time to depart hence for me that I may dye for you that ye may live now whither of these two be better God above knows but no man on Earth I think can tell SECT XLII The Spartans NOW had I rather have this gallant Spirit than all their Fortunes who past Judgment upon him though as to his disowning that any besides God knows which is better he knows it himself for he hath told it before but he retains to the last that Principle of his not to be positive in any thing Now hold me this stedfastly that nothing can be evil which is allotted all by Nature And consider that if death be Evil it is an everlasting Evil for of a miserable Life Death seemeth to be the end but if Death be miserable there can be no end of the Misery Now what do I mention Socrates or Theramenes men excelling in the Glory of Vertue and Wisdom when t a certain Lacedemonian whose name is not so much as Recorded did so much despise Death as when he was condemn'd u by the Ephori and led to Execution upon looking chearfully and with a merry Countenance when a certain Enemy challeng'd him and said do you slight the Laws of Lycurgus He answer'd Nay but I take my self to be much beholden to him who hath laid that Fine upon me which I shall be able to pay without either Loane or taking up upon Interest O Citizen worthy of Sparta Insomuch as that he who suffer'd so bravely seemeth to have been condemn'd unjustly Innumerable such Instances hath our Government produc'd but why name I Princes and Commanders when Cato writes that whole Legions have often march'd up with Alacrity to the place from whence they never expected to return with like Courage did the Lacedemonians fall w at Thermopylae upon whom Simonides Friend tell at Sparta here thou saw'st us slain Our Countries Laws establish'd to maintain What saith the Captain General Leonidas Good cheer fall on my Lacedemonians we may chance to Sup in the other World That was a stout Nation whilst the Laws of Lycurgus were in force One of them when another of the Persian Party said in a vaporing way We shall Eclipse the Sun our flight of Arrows will be so thick reply'd Then we shall fight in the shade I mention men what was that Lacedemonian Dame who having sent her Son to the Wars and hearing that he was kill'd said To that end brought I him into the World that there might be one who should be contented to dye for his Country t A certain Lacedemonian Called by Plutarch in his Laconic replys Thrictamenes u By the Ephori A Bench of High Justicers consisting of five who by the softness of the Spartan Kings grew to that highth as to have Power of calling in question the Royal Proceedings in Government but Lycurgus made no such Constitution w At Thermopylae The ridge of Thessalian Hills which parts Greece as the Apennine Italy at the Thermopylae is a Pass made good by Leonidas with three hundred Spartans against Xerxes and his mighty Army with the slaughter of innumerable Persians till by the treachery of one Ephialtes the Enemy was brought round another way and out off all the Spartans who were buried in a common Grave upon which was erected a Pillar with the Inscription made by Simonides SECT XLIII And Theodorus the Cyrenian A Digression to the Point of Burial ALLOW all this the Spartans were tough and sturdy the Countries Discipline hath great influence What say we of Theodorus the Cyrenian no mean Philosopher do we not admire him When King Lysimachus threatened he would Crucifie him Use saith he those dreadful Menaces to these your Courtiers Theodorus careth not whether he rot on ground or in the Air. By which saying of his I am put in mind that it were proper to speak somewhat here to the Point of Interment and Burial a matter of no great difficulty especially after those Informations of being insensible which have been even now
of Friendships wherein as all the Counsel agreeing and almost conspiring in the conduct of Life hath been plac'd by the Learned so is there singular delight in dayly respect and Conversation What I pray doth this Life lack to make it more Happy To this Estate fill'd up with so many and so great Joys Fortune it self must needs submit Now if it be Happy to rejoyce in such Goods of the Mind that is Vertues and all wise men constantly feel such Joys we must of necessity confess that all wise men are Happy SECT XXVI The wise man is Happy in Adversity S. WHAT under Tortures and Racking M. Do you think I mean under a Chaplet of Violets and Roses Shall Epicurus who is only a Philosopher in Masquerade and assumes that Title to himself shall he be allow'd to say what yet he doth with my applause as the matter now stands that there is no time of a wise man although whilst he is burning wrack'd cut but wherein he may cry out Now nothing do I value this especially when he defines all Evil by Pain Good by Pleasure laughs at this our Honesty as baseness and teaches us to be a company of Canters that set up for a parcel of idle School-Gibbrish not having any other true Interest but in what feels smooth or rough in the Body Shall he then as I said not much differing in judgment from Beasts be allow'd to forget himself and then to brave Fortune when as his whole both Good and Evil is in the Power of Fortune then call himself Happy in the greatest racking and torture when he hath laid it down for a Principle that Pain is not only the chiefest but the only Evil and that not having provided himself of those supports to the bearing up under Pain such as are Resolution of Mind Fear of Baseness Exercise and Habit of Patience Precepts of Fortitude manly Hardiness but saith he rests himself on the bare remembrance of past Pleasures just as if one sweltring when he is ready to faint away with the excess of heat would call to mind that he had been p in our Manner of Arpinum refresh'd with the Breezes from the cool Streams that run about it for I do not see how past Pleasures can asswage present Evils but when he saith that a wise man is always Happy who could say no such thing if he would be true to himself what should they do who think nothing desirable nothing to be rank'd amongst Goods which is abstracted from Honesty If my word may pass even the Peripateticks and old Academicks should at length leave their lisping and without more mincing the matter take courage to speak plain and with an intelligible voice that Happiness of Life can enter into q Phalaris his Bull. p In our Manner of Arpinum refresh'd with the Breezes from the cold Streams that run about it In Cicero's Arpinum were two Rivers Fibrenus and another where the Marian Oak stood a pertinent and pleasant Similitude q Phalaris his Bull. When Phalaris rul'd in Sicily with rigor he put many to diverse Tortures Upon this Perillus thinking to gratifie the Tyrants cruel Humour invented a Brazen Bull hollow and with a Trap-door to let in the Sufferers then having shut it again to kindle a gentle Fire and so the Brass heating the Person also roar'd out into bellowings as of a true Bull the Tyrant made the first experiment upon the Artist it is put Metonymically for any exquisite Torture SECT XXVII Objection from Pain against the self-sufficiency of Vertue answered FOR allow there be three sorts of Goods that we may at length get clear of the Snares of the Stoicks more of which I understand that I have us'd than I am wont to do allow them I say for sorts of Goods so those of the Body and of the Estate couch on the ground and be only term'd Good because they are to be accepted but those other Divine ones let them spread far and near and mount up to Heaven so that he who hath acquir'd them why should I call him Happy only and not also most Happy But will a wise man dread Pain for that is the greatest Adversary to this opinion for we seem enough fortified and prepared by the former days Disputes against our own Death and that of our Friends as also against Discontent and the other Passions of the Mind Pain seems to be the most violent Adversary against Vertue that thrusts out his burning Torches at us that threatens to vanquish Fortitude Magnanimity and Patience Shall Vertue then fall under this Shall the Blessed Life of a Wife and Constant man render to this Good Gods how base were that Spartan Children torn with smarting Lashes never give a groan We have seen our selves at Lacedaemon Multitudes of young men Box Kick Scratch Bite with incredible earnestness so as to fall down dead before they would confess themselves worsted What Barbarous Land is more wast or wild than India yet in that Nation those who are counted wise men live naked and endure the Snows and Winter violence of Caucasus without Pain and when they turn themselves to the Flame are scorch'd without groaning Nay r the Indian Women when the Husband of any of them is dead enter into Contest and Tryal which of them he lov'd best for they are wont to be many Wives to one man she that gets the better joyful and attended by her Friends is laid by her Husband on the Funeral Pile the other that lost goes away sorrowful Custom could never vanquish Nature for that is always invincible But we have emasculated our Spirit with Shade Delicacies Ease Niceness Sloth and debauched our Judgment with Mistakes and bad Presidents Who knows not the Aegyptians Practice whose minds being prepossess'd with corrupt Errors would endure any the most exquisite Torment rather than violate s an Ibis t or Asp or Cat or Dog or Crocodile and if unawares they do any such thing they are content to undergo any Punishment that shall be inflicted on them I speak hitherto of Men. What do Beasts do not they endure Cold and Hunger Running and Ranging over Mountains and thorough Woods do they not so Fight to protect their Young as to receive Wounds fear no Charges no Blows I wave that ambitious men abide and suffer for Honors sake what the vain-glorious for Praise what the Amorous for Lust The World is full of Instances r The Indian Women In the Camp of Eumenes there fell out an admirable Instance and very much different from the Grecian Practice Cetrus one of the Indian Captains having fought bravely fell in the Battle and left two Wives behind him Now it had been an old Custom in India that young Men and Maids married without asking their Parents Consent but as they fancied one another This rash judgment of Youth was often follow'd with speedy Repentance so that many Women were debauch'd and fell in Love with others but finding no colour of leaving them
Elements which furnish material cause of existence to all compound Bodies pitches upon a fifth Essence of which the rational Soul should consist for to think and forecast to learn and teach to invent with so many other Abilities of Memory Love Hatred Desire Fear Anxiety Joy he doth not conceive these and the like can be inherent in any of those four Elements Hereupon he adds a fifth nameless Nature and so calls the Soul by the new name of a pure Act being in continu'd and perpetual Motion SECT XI Inferences from these diverse Opinions THese are almost all the Opinions about the Soul as far as I can recollect for let us wave Democritus a brave man indeed and excellent Scholar but who fram'd the Soul upon a casual rencounter of smooth and globular Moths for among those Gentlemen there is no feat so strange but what omnipotent Atomes can perform Of these Opinions which is true God alone knows which hath the greatest appearance of truth is much to be question'd Had we best therefore discuss these different Opinions or return to the enquiry at first propos'd S. I would fain both might be if it were possible but it is hard to confound them Wherefore if without scanning them at large we may be deliver'd from the Terrors of death let that be our business but if that cannot be obtain'd till this question of the Souls nature be decided let us now dispatch this and that another time M. I judge that more convenient which I find you like better for it will be concluded with good Reason that whatsoever of those Opinions which I have alledged prove true death must be either not evil or rather good For if the Soul be Heart or Blood or Brains of a certain because it is Corporal it will dye with the other Body If it be breath perhaps it will scatter into thin Air If Fire it will be quench'd If it be the Harmony of Aristoxenus it will be discomposed What need I mention Dicaearchus who allows not the Soul to be any Substance according to all these Opinions none hath any concern after Death for Life and Sense are extinguish'd together But what is insensible hath neither interest in good or evil The Judgments of the rest open some door of Hope if this may chance to please you that our Souls when they have escap'd out of our Bodies may arrive at Heaven as at their own Home S. That is well pleasing to me and I could principally wish that it were so But next however it is could be contented with the perswasion that it were so M. What need have you of our pains to that purpose can we surpass Plato in Eloquence Read over diligently his Book about the Soul you will need no further Information S. I have in truth done so and that many times but I know not how whilst I am in reading I yield my assent when I have laid down the Book and begin to meditate with my self upon the Soul's Immortality all my former Assent slips out of my mind M. What think you of this do you grant that Souls do either subsist after death or determine upon death S. I readily grant it M. b What if they survive S. I allow they are blessed M. If they dye S. That they are not miserable because they have no being for that Point upon compulsion from you we a little before granted M. How then or wherefore do you say death in your judgment to be an evil which either renders us blessed in case the Soul survive or not miserable as being without all Sense b What if they survive I allow they are blessed An intellectual Life is a Blessing compar'd with Annihilation but to this must be added Reconciliation to God on such Terms as he hath declar'd consistent with the Honor of his Justice and Truth SECT XII Arguments that the Soul subsists after Death from immemorial Tradition from Funeral Rites and from the Veneration of ancient Heroes S. BE pleas'd therefore to declare in the first place if you are able that the Soul subsists after Death if you cannot evince that for it is a hard matter to make out clearly inform us that Death carrieth no evil along with it for I fear least that be evil I say not to be insensible but that we must lose our Senses M. We can produce the best Authority for that Sentence which you would gain now this both ought and is wont to be of greatest moment in deciding all Causes as first the consent of all Antiquity who the less distance they were remov'd from their original and divine Extraction did perhaps discern truth more clearly Therefore this one Principle was deeply engrasted in those old Sires who liv'd in the non-age of time that there was Sense after Death nor would man by departure out of Life be so rais'd up from the Foundations as to perish totally And this may be collected as from many other Instances so in particular from the Pontifical Sanctions about Ceremonies at the places of burial which they would never have observ'd with so much Devotion nor aveng'd the breach of them under such inexpiable Penalties had it not been imprinted in their minds that death was not an Annihilation but a removal and change only of Life which used to conduct Men and Women of good Fame up to Heaven and which continu'd in others but was depress'd to the grosser Regions investing the Earth After this Ritual and the Opinion of our Ancestors In Heaven lives Romulus with the Gods in bliss as Ennius compliant with Fame sweetly sings In like manner among the Greeks and from them deriv'd to us and as far as the Western Ocean is Hercules esteem'd a God so powerful and propitious From hence Bacchus born of Semâ—le and in like renown Castor and Pollux Brethren Sons of Tynearus who are deliver'd to have been in the Battles of the Roman People not only assistants of Victory c but also Messengers there of express What is not Ino Cadmus's Daughter who was nam'd by the Greeks Leucothea term'd by the Romans Matuta What is not almost all Heaven not to instance in more peopled with Inhabitants of humane Race c But also Messengers thereof In the War with the Latins at the Regillan Lake two Knights on white Horses were seen to lead up the Roman Battalia and after the Victory the same night to wash their Houses at the Fountain of Juiurna where having brought Post to Rome the News of the day won they vanish'd The like divine Express is said to have brought the word to Domitius Aenobarbus the day that Perses King of Macedon was beaten by Paulus Aemilius SECT XIII From this that the Superior Gods are receiv'd to have been Men deceas'd BUT if I should go about to ransack old Monuments and discover out of them what the Greek Writers have disclos'd those very Gods which are reputed of the higher Rank will be found to have pass'd from us here to
here on Earth for there is no mixture or composition in Souls nor any appearance that they were born or moulded nothing of Water Wind or Fire for in these Natures there is nothing which hath a Power of Memory Understanding or Thought which can both retain what is past foresee what is to come and comprehend what is present which are Divine Properties nor will it ever be made out whence they could be deriv'd upon man but from God There is then a peculiar Nature and Power of the Soul distant from these visible and known Natures Whatever therefore is that Principle which hath Sense which hath Wisdom which hath Will which hath Activity it is Celestial and Divine and therefore must of necessity be eternal Nor in truth can God himself as he is understood of us be otherwise apprehended than as a Spirit uncontroul'd and free separate from all mortal Contagion perceiving all things and moving all things and being it self endu'd with everlasting Motion SECT XXVIII From its Faculties THE Spirit of man is of this lineage and of the same Nature Where therefore or of what likeness is that Spirit Where is yours or of what likeness Can you resolve me If I am not able to understand all things which I wish I were able to do will you not allow to make use of such Abilities as I have The Soul hath not that Power as to see its self but the Soul as the Eye though it see not it self beholds other things It sees not what is of small import it s own form Perhaps so though as to that but forbear we it It sees to be sure its Power Pregnancy Memory Motion Quickness these are great these are divine these are everlasting Excellencies What shape it is of or where it dwells is not to be inquir'd As when we see first the face and brightness of Heaven then so great a swiftness of Circumvolution as we cannot conceive Next the Succession of days and nights and four-fold alteration of Seasons fitted to the ripening of Corn and temperature of Bodies Then the Sun Captain and Ruler over all these as also the Moon which by her waxing and waning doth distinguish and as it were point at the days of the Kalendar Further that in the same Orb divided into twelve parts the other five Planets do move keeping constantly their proper Periods though unequal to one another and withall the lustre of the Fir mament on all parts bespangled with Stars then the Globe of the Earth standing above the Sea fix'd in the middle of the Universe inhabited and peopled in two distant Regions the one of which where we dwell is plac'd under the Pole by the Northern Bear whence Blust'ring cold Boreas Banks of driven Snow raises The other is Southern unknown to us which the Greeks call under the opposite Pole g the remaining three parts are uninhabited as being either starv'd with cold or scorch'd with heat h but here where we inhabit without failure The Air grows mild new Liveries grace the Woods Luxuriant Vines shoot forth young Grapes and Buds Fruit-trees with loaded Boughs incline their heads Springs purle Grass diapers the flowry Meads Furthermore the multitude of Cattle some for Food some for Agriculture some for Carriage some for Cloathing and man himself as it were Contemplator of Heaven and the Gods and Worshipper of them but all Lands and Seas subservient to Mans use g The remaining three parts are uninhabited The ancient Romans knew little more than the Northern temperate Zone but concluded the like of the Southern But our Navigations and Voyages have discovered the whole Torrid Zone to be inhabited and part of the Northern Frigid to be so by which the like may be inferred of part of the Southern Frigid Nor doth any part of the World seem uncapable of Habitation at some Seasons of the year though less commodious as Carpenter disputes in his Decads h But here where we inhabit He slides into an indirect Commendation of Italy as the Paradise of the World SECT XXIX From its Nature WHEN we behold therefore these and innumerable other things can we doubt but that there presides over this frame either the maker if these things were produc'd as is the judgment of Plato or if they were from Eternity as is the opinion of Aristotle a directer of so great a Work and Administration Thus the mind of man although you see it not as you do not see God yet as you acknowledge God from his Works so from the memory of things and invention and swiftness of motion and the whole beauty of Vertue acknowledge the Divine Power of the mind In what place then is it I take it to be in the head And why take it to be there I can give my reason but at another time Now for where the Soul should be To be sure 't is within you What is its Nature Proper I think and by it self But suppose it of Fire suppose it of Breath that imports nothing to the matter in hand Only look to this that as you know God although you are ignorant both of his place and shape so ought your Soul to be known to you although you are ignorant both of its place and form Now in the knowledge of the Soul we can no ways doubt of this unless we be meer Dunces in natural Philosophy that there should be any mixture in Souls any composition any conjunction any cementing any thing double which so being neither can it be separated nor divided nor torn nor drawn asunder nor by consequent dye for death is as it were a Departure a Separation and Disunion of those parts which before death were held together by some common tye By these and the like Reasons Socrates being mov'd neither sought to an advocate in the Tryal for his Life nor petition'd his Judges but demean'd himself with an unconcern'd stoutness deriv'd not from the bravery of his Spirit not from Pride And on the last day of his Life discours'd much on this very Subject and a few days before i when he might easily have been released out of Prison would not And when he was ready to take that deadly potion into his hand spoke after such manner as that he seem'd not driven to Death but ascending up to Heaven i When he might easily have been released out of Prison would not Crito would have deposited a great Sum Simmias the Theban had brought more Other Fellow-Students would have made a common Purse to have wrought upon the Keepers the Informers and some of the Indigent Magistrates but he would not escape by such indirect and dishonourable Practices SECT XXX From the Authority of Socrates and Cato FOR thus he maintain'd and thus he argued There are two ways and a double Post-road for Souls when they go out of the Body For they who had polluted themselves with the Vices of the World and abandon'd themselves wholly to Lusts with which being blinded they had defil'd themselves
Latins made a solemn Vow to take no Quarter that he might purchase the Romans Victory the like did Decius Mus the Son being a fourth time Consul in the Tuscan War and Decius Mus the Grandson at that time Consul in the Engagement with Pyrrhus King of Epirus fell in the desperate Encounter a third Sacrifice for the deliverance of his Country out of the same Line successively In the second Punick War P. Scipio Father of the elder Africanus commanding in Spain was run thorough with a Lance and nine and twenty days after Cn. Scipio his Brother was killed and all his Soldiers with him the Tower being set on fire into which they had fled At Cannae Fight Paulus Aemilius the Consul with 45000 Romans were slain Marcellus sirnam'd the Sword of Rome having first beaten Hannibal at Nola where he slew the Captain in chief hand to hand was intercepted in a March between Venusia and Bautia where he was cut off with his Party Sempronius Gracchus having routed the Carthaginians at Beneventum through the Treachery of Flavius a Lucanian with whom he quarter'd was kill'd by Mago in Lucania Aulus Albinus encountred the Latins so vigorously as that he fell in the Charge SECT XXXVIII Much less to hinder promoting the publick good But as Death is not terrible so neither is it amiable THerefore Death which by reason of uncertain Casualties is daily imminent and because Life so is short can never be far off doth not yet deter a wise man from providing for the State and his own Family for all future Ages and from thinking that Posterity though he shall have no Sense of it is his concern Upon which ground he that is of the judgment that the Soul is mortal may yet lay designs for Eternity not out of desire of glory whereof he shall have no Sense but of Vertue which Glory necessarily follows though you make it not your aime Now this is natural that as our Birth giveth us an entrance into the business of this World so Death should give our Exit from it Which as before our Birth it nothing concern'd us so neither shall it after Death Herein what Evil can there be since Death is the concern neither of the Living nor the Dead the latter cease to be it attaches not the former Those who speak in a slighting way of it would have it nearest resemble a dead Sleep as though any one would choose so to live to ninety years as that when he had arriv'd at sixty he should sleep the rest Swine would not make such option much less any man But Endymion if we will hearken to Fables fell I cannot tell when a sleep in Latmos which is a Mountain of Caria and is not I suppose yet awake Do you judge therefore that he regards when the Moon is eclips'd for he is reputed to have been cast into a deep trance by her that she might kiss him as he sleeps regard it how should he when he is not sensible of it You have sleep the Image of Death every day it cometh upon you and do you make question whether there be Sense in Death when you experience there is none in its resemblance SECT XXXIX The opinion of untimely Death examin'd AWAY then with these Sayings little better than fit for old Wives that it is miserable to dye before ones time What time I pray that of Nature Now she hath lent Life as Cash at no day certain of payment prefix'd what reason then have you to murmur if she calls in her own when she pleaseth since you receiv'd it upon that condition The same Persons if a Child dye young think it ought to be born patiently and if in the Cradle without any complaint Yet nature hath more rigorously exacted of him her Loan He had not as yet say they tasted the sweets of Life but this other had entertain'd great expectations and had already begun the enjoyment of them Now in all other benefits the very having get some share is counted better than to get none at all Why should it be otherwise in Life However Callimachus say not unhandsomly that Priam wept much oftner than Troilus But their fortune is commended who dye of Age. Why because I warrant had their life been longer it could not have been so pleasant Certainly nothing is so sweet to man as Wisdom Now though old Age impair us in other things yet it improves us in that But what Age is long or indeed what can man long have lately Children and presently after Youths doth not old Age pursuing close behind in the Race overtake us e're we are aware But we count this long because we have nothing further to proceed to All these accounts pass for long or short according to the proportion they bear with the space allotted to each kind By the mouth of the Hypanis which on the side of Europe falleth into the Black-Sea Aristotle reports certain Insects to be bred that live but one day Such therefore of these as dye at two in the Afternoon dye elderly but such as at Sunset very aged and the more if it be on the longest day in Summer Compare our life at longest with Eternity we shall be found in a manner as short-liv'd as are these Insects SECT XL. We must live in our places undaunted and when our time is come dye contented after the example of Theramenes DEspise we therefore all Fooleries for what slighter name can I give this weakness And let us place the whole stress of living well in constancy and bravery of Spirit and contempt of the World and in the exercise of all Vertue But now we break our Hearts with most unmanly thoughts so that if Death come upon us before we have met with the good luck read us by Fortune-tellers we look upon our selves as mock'd abus'd and rob'd of some great Advantages Whereas if we are held in suspense tormented and fretted with lingering Expectations Good God! How chearfully should we enter upon that Journey which being perform'd there will be no further disquiet nor anxiety of mind How taking and of what gallant Spirit is Theramenes for though we cannot choose but cry when we read the Story yet a brave man never dyeth pittifully When he had been imprison'd by order of the Council of State consisting of thirty Tyrants and had taken of the Poyson in a hearty draught as though he had been adry the small remainder he so flung out of the Cup as that it dash'd against the ground then smiling said Here is to Critias the fair who had been his most mortal Enemy For it is the Grecian Mode in their Feasts to name whom they would have pledge them This excellent Person broke a Jest with his parting breath s and was a true Prophet of that death which soon after overtook him who had been the occasion of his suffering by Poyson Who could commend this indifferency of mind at the very point of Death if he judg'd
premis'd What was Socrates Sense of the business appeareth in a Dialogue which relateth the manner of his death about which we have already spoke so much for having argued for the immortality of Souls when the time of his dying press'd on and he was ask'd by Crito how he would be buried Now much pains saith he have I laid out Friends to little purpose for I have not perswaded our Companion Crito that I shall fly away hence and leave nothing of me here below Nevertheless Crito if you can come at me or shall find me any where bury me as you shall think fit But believe me when I shall have departed hence none of you will reach me An excellent reply for he both left it to his Friend and declar'd that he was upon the whole matter altogether indifferent Diogenes was more churlish though of the same mind yet like a Cynick more roughly bid them fling him out of doors without any burying What say his Friends to the Birds and Beasts By no means saith he but lay my staff by me that I may beat them away How can you do that answered they when you shall have no feeling Oh! I shall have no feeling what harm then will the tearing of wild Beasts do me Bravely said Anaxagoras who when he lay a dying x at Lampsacus and his Friends ask'd him whither if he should do otherwise than well he would be carried to Clazomenae his Country answered There is no need for it is the same distance from all places to the other World Now upon the whole consideration of Burial this Principle is to be held that it relates to the Body whether the Soul dye or survive it is also manifest that whether the Soul be extinguish'd or escap'd there remains no Sense in the Body x At Lampsacus Anaxagoras was banish'd Athens for speaking irreverently as they judg'd it of the Sun which he call'd a Mass of glowing Iron SECT XLIV Cruelty towards dead Enemies and lamenting unburied Friends reprov'd BUT all the World is full of mistakes Achilles drags Hector ty'd at the Chariots tail sure he thinks him torn grievously Therefore this the man doth out of revenge as he thinks Again y the Woman bewails it as a very cruel matter I saw and at the sight my sad heart fail'd Hector behind the flying Chariot trail'd What Hector or how long will he continue Hector Better saith Attius and Achilles at length grown wise Priam the Corps I gave But Hector took away Thou didst not therefore drag Hector but the Corps which had been Hector's z Look another peeps up from under ground who cannot let his Mother sleep Mother whose care soft slumbers have beguil'd Nor pittiest me rise bury thy dead Child When these Aires are plaid to a low and lamentable Tune which raiseth compassion in whole Theaters it is hard not to judge them miserable who lye unburied E're Birds and Breasts He is afraid least he should not have the use of his Limbs if they be torn but fears not if they be burnt a Alas what of the half-burnt King remain'd Bare bones lye trod on ground with gore distain'd I understand not what he feareth since he worketh out such sweet numbers to the sound of the Pipe Hold we this then for a Maxim that nothing is to be regarded after Death though many take Vengeance on Enemies even when they are dead Thyestes in Ennius curseth his Brother in very ingenious Verses wishing first that Atreus might perish by Shipwrack a dismal Fate for such a kind of death is not without grievous pain the rest is but empty sound Pitch'd on a craggy Rocks sharp-pointed Top There let him hang his Bowels panch'd His sides upon the rough Spikes gaunch'd On the stones black gore and matter drop Why those very stones were not more void of all Sense than he that is thus empal'd whom he thinks he wisheth it for a Torment How grievous would they be if he felt them without Sense they were no torture at all that too is wonderful idle Nor of the Graves safe harbor be possess'd Where after life his Corps from harms may rest You see upon how great a mistake all this runs on he thinks the Grave to be the Bodies Haven and that when it is dead it rests there Pelops was much to blame who had not taught his Son better nor instructed him what regard was due to each thing y The Woman Andromache Hector's Wife the couplet is taken out of a Tragedy of Ennius of that name z Look another peeps up from under ground Priam King of Troy at the Greeks Invasion had sent his youngest Son Polydore with a great Sum of Money to Polymester King of Thrace who had married Iliona the Princess Royal of Asia his eldest Daughter that he might be secured against the uncertain events of War She tenderly brought him up as her own Son but the Fortune of the Trojans being turned the Tyrant to curry favor with the Greeks murthers his Charge flings him out unburied and seiseth his Portion Thhe Ghost of the murther'd appears to his ruputed Mother in her sleep and demands burial This passage is taken out of the Iliona of Pacuvius a Alas what of the half-burnt King These seem to be a distinct out of Ennius spoken by Hecuba or Andromache about King Priam consum'd or scorch'd in the Flames of Troy with an allusion to the Greek way of burning the Corps or gathering the Ashes or Bones into Urns. SECT XLV The Customs about some Savages about Burial condemn'd What decency to be observ'd in Interment of the Dead BUT why do I take notice of private Opinions when we may plainly see the diverse Errors of whole Nations The Egyptians embalm their Dead and keep them at home The Persians over and above embalming wrap them in Searcloths that the Body may continue as long as is possible entire It is the Custom of the Magi not to inter any of their Fellows till their Bodies have been first torn in pieces with wild Beasts In Hircania the Commons maintain Dogs at the publick Charge Noble-men in their Families Now we know that is a generous Race of Mastiffs but every one purchaseth them according to his Ability and that they take for the best way of Burial Chrysippus collects many other Instances as being excellently well vers'd in all sorts of History but some of them b so loathsom that civil Discourse doth nauseate and abhor the mentioning of them Now this whole matter is to be despised by us not neglected by our Friends provided always that we judge the Bodies of the Dead to have no Sense yet how far Custom and common Fame is to be comply'd with let the Living consider that but so as to understand that it no ways concerns the Dead Now death is then to be receiv'd with the greatest content when the decaying Life can comfort it self with a Reflexion upon its past good Services No man hath liv'd short of his
and specious but which he esteemed less firm he turns off to the Person of Greek Rhetoricians whom he no where over-values e They are wont in Disputations to produce the Judgments of the immortal Gods When any doubt ariseth which affords matter of Debate if a Divine Determination come once to be understood all dispute ceaseth the Case is over-rul'd without further appeal mans Reason must acquiesce in the Will of God as in a peremptory Sentence against which to oppose our private Conceptions were intolerable Impiety Nevertheless it is injoyn'd our prudence with all due caution to examine the Testimony before it be admitted as such lest in our own wrong we pay the Homage of Divine Faith to humane Inventions The Stoicks were not forward in giving credit to Oracles or any sort of Prognostication suspected South-sayers Fortune-tellers and Interpreters of Dreams Those Ages which have most hearkened to Apparitions and Visions have brought in the greatest Errors Strong Affections joyned with weak Judgments are apt to betray to Fanaticism Nay it is indulged our frailty to consider upon what grounds we receive the Holy Scriptures the Word of God is tryed and will abide the Test The Sun at noon day shines not brighter than the moral Evidences which verifie the Parts and the Whole but the Eyes of our Understandings are dim and further darkened by the Interest of our inordinate Affections S. Augustin in his Confessions acknowledges his backwardness in assenting to revealed Truths but with all humble modesty purgeth himself from a resolved suppressing its Convictions or undervaluing its Author There is a further caution necessary in the admission of such a Divine Testimony to take it in its right Sense and therefore to use all due means to be well informed of that Our Souls are staked not only against Faith but the True Faith Now the greater the Sum charged is the wise Merchant will take the better advice before he allow the Bill of Exchange f Nor do they devise them themselves but report them upon the Authority of Herodotus and diverse others The following Stories carry the name of great Authorities but their Tradition is uncertain in a matter not self-evident nor is Herodotus a responsible Voucher his Narrations resembling the Ionick Fables sweet and delightful sometimes strange even to Admiration not with that plainness which is the usual Companion of Credibility The like may be said of Homer nor are Pindar and other Poets or Mythologers sufficient Evidences in these Cases SECT XLVIII Those of Demigods Oracles and in Panegyrical Commemorations of such as have dy'd for their Country THERE is told us a fine Tale about Silenus who having been caught by Midas is written to have given him this recompence for his release that he taught the King g For man not to be born is far the best but next to that to dye speedily to which Sense Euripides in his Cresphantes alluded 'T were fit at the same House we met to mourn Where any Child into the World is born But who by death his painful days should end Friends would his Obsequies with mirth attend Somewhat to the same effect is found in Crantors Book of Consolation for he saith that one Elisius a Terinese being greatly afflicted at the death of his Son came into an Oratory to enquire what might be the Cause of so great a Calamity and that three Verses to this purport were given him in a Table-Book Here men in darkness stray without a guide A natural death thy Son Enthynous dy'd Thus best for him and thee did Fates provide Upon these and like Authorities they prove that the cause hath been decided by a Divine Sentence One Alcidamas an ancient Rhetorician of the highest Rank for eminency hath gone so far as to pen an Encomium of Death which consists in a rehearsal of the Miseries which accompany mans Life The Reasons which are more accurately collected by Philosophers he wanted copiousness of Language he wanted not Now h Deaths for their Country embrac'd with eminent Resolution are wont to seem not only glorious to Rhetoricians but also blessed They go back as far as Erechtheus whose very Daughters were zealous to dye to save the Lives of their Citizens descend to Codrus who charg'd up to the midst of his Enemies in the disguise of a Servant lest if he had worn his Royal Robes he might have been discover'd because the Oracle had foretold that Athens should bear away the Victory if their King were slain Nor is Menaeceus past in silence who upon a like Prediction sacrific'd his Life for his Country Iphigenia at Aulis bid them lead her up to the Altar that so the Enemies Blood might be drain'd by the Effusion of her own g For Man not to be born is far the best but next to that to dye speedily In consideration of the manifold Vanities which mans Corruption hath brought upon the World this Assertion hypothetically taken carrieth truth in it but simply delivered is not agreeable to right Reason therefore our Author judiciously separates from his sober enquiry after the means of well living these Encomiums of Death and Invectives against Life which favour of discontent give indication of the Hypochondriacks and tempt us to ingratitude against God and our Parents h Deaths for their Country embrac'd with eminent Resolution are wont to seem not only glorious to Rhetoriciaus but also blessed It was a custom among the Greeks one day in the year to make a solemn Commemoration-speech at the Tombs of those who had dyed Champions of the Liberty of Greece as at Marathon against Darius and elsewhere Here the Orators strain'd all the Power of their Eloquence by extolling the Bravery of those Warriers to incite their Auditors to gallant Resolution in like honourable Undertakings Tully so words this Sentence as if the Rhetoricians affected Praise of their own Wit in the Commendation of the others Valour intimates also that they carried it too far when they went about to perswade that there were happiness in loosing Life upon such accounts he had prov'd above that as death should not be terrible when the circumstance requires it so neither is it amiable It suffices to our reward that we cheerfully submit to the necessity though we make it not matter of choice SECT XLIX The Close of all applys that Substance of the present Debate to the Readers benefit THEY come thence to latter times Harmodius is in vogue and Aristogiton the Lacedemonian Leonidas Theban Epaminondas flourish with our Patriots they are not acquainted and but to recount them would be a hard task there are so many who we see have made it their choice to dye in the Bed of Honor. Which things being so yet must we use great Eloquence and speak as with Authority that men may be brought either to wish for death or at least may forbear fearing it for if that last day do not bring with it an utter Annihilation but only change of abode what were
more desirable but if it destroy and abolish the whole what is better than in the midst of our labors here to fall asleep and so laid fast to take an eternal repose If that fall out to be true yet i better is the saying of Ennius than of Solon for that our Country-man saith None at my Funerals weep nor hard Fates blame But that wise man on the contrary Let not my death want tears may my Friends mourn And with deep sighs my Funerals adorn k But as for us if any such thing should fall out that a Message may seem to be sent us from God to depart this Life let us submit with joy and be thankful judging our selves discharg'd from Prison and our Shackles knock'd off that we may either return to dwell in our eternal and true home or may be set free from all Sense and uneasiness but if no such Message be sent us yet let us be prepared to think that day so dreadful to others to be to us happy and rank nothing amongst Evils l which is either by God appointed or by Nature the common Mother m For we were not without Cause or at all adventures born and bred but in truth there was some Power which had an especial Providence over man nor would beget or breed up such a Being as after it had endur'd all the labours of this Life should then fall into the eternal Evil of Death Let us rather think it a Haven to find provided for us into which I could wish we might ride with Sails top and top-gallant but if we shall be beaten off through contrary Winds yet not long after we must of necessity be driven back to the same place Now what is necessary for all can that be miserable to any one You have the Epilogue least you should think any thing hath been omitted or left unfinish'd S. I have it indeed and that Conclusion hath in truth more confirm'd me M. Very well say I but at present let us have some regard to our Health then to morrow and as many days after as we shall abide in this Tusculan Place let us mind these Matters and especially such as bring relief to our Discontents Fears and Lusts which is the greatest advantage that can be made of all Philosophy i Better is the Saying of Ennius The loss of the Vertuous finds in sorrow comfort and yet he that lives undesir'd dyes unlamented but Cicero must extoll his Country-man above a wise man of Greece k But as for us if any such thing should fall out that a message may seem to be sent us from God to depart this Life This is a particular Application of the former discourse to himself in that present juncture of Affairs wherein he seems not to be free from all apprehension of violence from the displeasure of Caesar and exasperated Spirits of some of the Caesarian Officers and their Army of Veterans spread all over Italy and the places whither he was then retired l Which is either by God appointed Death is not the Ordinance of a Creator but Sentence of a Judge m For we were not without cause or at all adventures born and bred but in truth there was some Power which had an especial Providence over man This is a masterly stroke to set forth our primitive Institution Man was ordain'd to some good end no less than that of Vertue and Glory which State being lost as evidently it is the same especial Providence watching over him hath by a new Covenant in the hands of a Mediator restor'd him to a lively hope that after he hath endur'd the labours of this painful Life he shall not then fall into the evil of eternal Death Patience under Pain The Proem Sect. 1 2 3 4. Book II. SECT I. The benefit of Philosophy NEoptolemus in Ennius saith he must act the Philosopher but a little for the part is no way pleasing But I my dear Brutus judge that I must study Philosophy for in what can I be better employ'd especially being out of all employment but not a little as he saith for it is hard in Philosophy to have a little known to him that doth not know the most or all for neither can a little be chosen but out of much nor will he that hath understood a little be satisfied till he hath learn'd the rest n But in a life of employment and such as was that of Neoptolemus at that time Military even that little doth often much good and brings advantages though not so great as might be reap'd from the whole course of Philosophy yet such as thereby we may in some measure be reliev'd against Lust or Fear or Discontent As by that Disputation which I lately held in my House at Tusculum there seem'd to have been wrought a great contempt of Death which is of no small influence to free the Soul from the fear of it For he who is continually afraid of that which cannot be avoided can by no means have any quiet of his Life but he that doth not fear death not only because he must of necessity dye but because death hath nothing dreadful in it that man hath gain'd good interest towards the ensuring a happy Life Although we are not ignorant that many will earnestly contradict these things which we could no ways prevent unless we would write nothing at all for if our very Orations which we desir'd should be approv'd to the judgment of the Multitude for the Faculty is popular and the Approbation of the Auditors is the work that Eloquence hath to do but if there were some men in the World who would commend nothing but what they were confident themselves could imitate and made their own hope the Standard of their good words and when they were born down with copiousness of words and sense would say they had rather have Barrenness and Poverty than Plenty and Riches from whence o a sort of Attick Speakers took their Rise who knew not themselves what it was they pretended to follow and who are now silenc'd being almost laugh'd out of Court what do we think would become of us when we see we cannot now have the People any longer our abettor as we had before for Philosophy is contented to have but few judges and studiously avoids the multitude as being suspected by it and hated of it So that if a man would speak against Philosophy in general he might have the People on his side or if he would go about to attack this which we chiefly profess to follow he might have great assistance from the Doctrines of other Philosophers Now as to the Traducers of Philosophy in general we have answered them in our Hortensius n But in a Life of Employment Skill in Logick and knowledge of Natural and Moral Philosophy do undoubtedly conduce to Prudence and Moderation both in Discourse and Action He that hath not shar'd in such Education may through preguancy of parts and evenness of Temper grow
XXXVI of Anger BUT Anger how long soever it disturbs the mind is without Controversie madness by the instigation of which such ill Language passeth even between Brethren What man more impudent than thee e're liv'd Or than thee more malitious You know what follows for bitter reproaches are retorted by one Brother upon the other in Verses interchangeably so that it may easily appear that they are Atreus his own Sons his who contrives a new vengeance upon his Brother Some strange Plot deep design I must devise His raging heart with horror to surprise What then is this Plot hear Thyestes himself Welcome saith my kind Brother pray fall on Good chear my Sons And sets their Bowels in a Dish before him for what Degree is there that Anger will not arrive at and at which Fury will Hence we say of men in Passion that they are out of all Government that is Counsel Reason Understanding for these ought to have the Government over the whole Soul For men in this condition either those are to be convey'd from them upon whom they would fall violently till they recollect themselves now what is it to recollect ones self but to rally the scatter'd and disorder'd parts of the Soul into their proper place or they are to be intreated and beg'd at to defer what thoughts they had of executing their revenge till another time when their Anger cools now cooling implys that the Spirits did boyl over contrary to the Dictates of Reason To which that saying of Architas refers who being in some heat against his Bayliff said How would I have order'd you were I not Angry SECT XXXVII The Cause of Passions an opinion that they are our Duty WHERE then are those that say Wrath is useful Can Madness be useful or natural Can any thing be agreeable to Nature and contrary to Reason Now if Anger were natural how could it be either that one man should be more hasty than another or that it could be over before the desire of Revenge be satiated or that any should repent of what they did in Passion as we see by King Alexander for a after he had kill'd his Friend Clitus he could hardly forbear offering violence to himself so strongly did Repentance work upon him These things being notorious who can doubt but that this motion of the Soul is also wholly in conceit and voluntary for who can doubt but that the Diseases of the Soul such as Covetousness Ambition arise from this that the object upon which the Soul dotes is over-valu'd whence ought to be understood that every Passion also hath its being from opinion and if assurance that is a firm affiance of the mind be a kind of Science and stedfast opinion of one yielding his assent upon good grounds only then is Fear a diffidence of mind upon some expected and impending Evil. If hope be the expectation of Good needs must Fear be an expectation of Evil as Fear then so the other Passions relate to Evil. As Constancy then is Fruit of Knowledge so is Passion of Error But as for some mens being said to be naturally hasty or pittiful or envious or any such thing they have Souls as of an unhealthful Constitution yet curable as is said of Socrates when Zopyrus a great Pretender to skill in Phisiognomy had openly in company recounted many Vices which he concluded from his Art to be in Socrates he was derided by the rest who knew no such Vices to be in Socrates but was help'd out by himself who own'd himself subject to those Vices but withall said he had subdu'd them by Reason Therefore as he that is in the best health may be thought naturally proner to some Disease or another so is one mind more inclinable to one Disease and another to another but they who are said to be vitious not from Nature but through their own default their Vices consist of misapprehensions about things good and bad so that one is proner to one Motion and Passion and another to another but evil habits in Souls as Chronical Distempers in Bodies are more difficult to be remov'd than a simple disorder and a sudden swelling of the Eyes is sooner cur'd than a long soreness is remov'd a After he had kill'd his Friend Clitus Alexander the Great who subdu'd all things that stood in his way yet was vanquish'd by Wine and Anger On a time as he was drinking with his Commanders Clitus had magnified the Actions of King Philip which he took as done in Derogation to his Glory and run him through with his Spear but when he came to himself and his Passion was over he was so troubled at the barbarous Act that he was ready to turn the same Spear against his own Heart tore his Face and beg'd of all about him that they would not let him survive that infamy Three days he stir'd not out of his Tent and could hardly he prevail'd upon to take any more sustenance but by the intercession of his Friends and especially the Counsels of Callisthenes he was brought again to some comfortable quiet of mind Clitus was the Son of Alexander's Nurse an old Souldier of King Philip and who in the Battle of Granicus had protected with his Shield King Alexander fighting bare-headed and cut off the hand of Rhosaces lifted up against the King's Head with many other honourable Exploits SECT XXXVIII The cure of them in rectifying that mistake BUT the cause of the Passions being already found that they all arise from Judgments form'd upon Opinions and our Wills let this Dispute draw to a Conclusion We must likewise know that after the knowledge of the Extremities of Good and Evil as far as Humane Nature is capable of it nothing can be look'd for from Philosophy either greater or more useful than the Subject of these four days Disputation for after the contempt of Death and reducing Pain within the bounds of Patience we have added a quieting of Discontent than which man hath no greater Evil for although every Distemper of mind is grievous and doth not much differ from madness yet are we wont to term other Persons when they are in any Passion either of Fear or Mirth or Lust as only stir'd or disorder'd but those who have abandon'd themselves to Discontent miserable afflicted melancholly calamitous Therefore it seems not to have been casual but with good judgment propounded by you for us to dispute about Discontent apart from the other Passions for in that is the source and spring of Miseries But the cure both of Discontent and the other Diseases of the Soul is one that they are all from conceit and voluntary and taken up for this reason because it seems fitting so to do Philosophy undertakes to extirpate this Error as the root of all our Evils Let us then resign our selves up to her culture and be content to be cur'd for whilst these evils lurk in us we are so far from a possibility of being happy that we
cannot be so much as in our Wits Therefore either let us deny that any thing can be effected by reason whereas on the contrary nothing can be well done without reason or seeing Philosophy consists in a deduction of Reasons if we would be both good and happy let us fetch from thence all the aids and assistances to a good and happy Life The chief End of Man The Preamble Sect. 1 2 3 4. Book V. SECT I. The efficacy of Vertue is not to be valu'd by our faint-heartedness THIS fifth day most worthy Brutus will put an end to our Tusculan Disputations on which day was debated that which of all Subjects you most approve for I perceive by that Book which you writ to me with great exactness and your many Discourses that you are zealously of the opinion that Vertue is self-sufficient to Happiness which though it be hard to demonstrate by reason of the many and diverse Tortures by Fortune inflicted yet is it of such moment that it deserves all pains to be employ'd in order to the clearing of it up since there is nothing treated of in all Philosophy which is more Grave and Gallant to maintain for whereas that was their Motive who first apply'd to the Study of Philosophy to cast all their other business aside and put themselves wholly upon searching out the best State of Life certainly they laid out so much care and pains in that Study out of hopes to live happily Now if Vertue have been by them compleatly stated and if an interest in Vertue be sufficient to happiness of Life who is there but must think that the Pains in studying Philosophy was to excellent purpose both laid out by them and undertaken by us but if Vertue expos'd to diverse and uncertain hazards be the handmaid of Fortune and not of Power enough to defend it self I fear we must rather pray for happiness than aspire to it in any assurance of Vertue And in truth when I consider within my self those changes wherein Fortune hath greatly exercis'd me I begin to call this opinion into some question and at times to dread the weakness and frailty of Mankind for I fear as Nature hath given us feeble Bodies and fasten'd to them both incurable Diseases and intolerable Pains so least she have given us Souls also both jointly sympathizing with bodily Pains and severally incumber'd with Disquiets and Anguishes of their own But herein I correct my self that I judge of the strength of Vertue by the softness of others and perhaps my own not by Vertue it self For that if any such thing there be as Vertue b which Brutus your Uncle put out of doubt counts all things incident to man beneath it self and looks down upon the changes of Humane Life with contempt for being utterly blameless it chargeth it self with no other concern than to preserve its own integrity But we both increasing all future Adversities with Fear and present ones with Vexation choose rather to condemn Nature than acknowledge our own Error a I fear we must rather pray for Happiness than aspire to it in any assurance of Vertue That man was ordain'd to Vertue and Happiness is evident that our Nature was originally perfect and to act according to it had been sufficient to the attaining to that end cannot I think justly he deny'd that our Reasons and Wills are yet the Powers and Faculties by which only we can act as Men. What is said here I fear we must rather pray for Happiness than aspire to it in any assurance is undoubtedly a Proverbial Loquntion to this purpose We must cry out God help us and surcease all endeavours of our own which is unwarrantable as tending to discourage Industry In a Storm the Pilot must not quit the Stern nor other Sea-men their Quarter as they expect the Ship should ever be safe Since our Nature is deprav'd could we retrieve lost Perfection it were not of it self sufficient to the recovery of Happiness because the non-incurring a new Debt doth not quit the old Arrear yet have we grounds of hope that sincerity of endeavours shall not want acceptance through another Covenant vouchsafed to Man-kind b Which Brutus your Uncle M. Porcius Cato Uticensis the Brother of Servilia Mother to Brutus CHAP. II. Philosophy is the Rule of Life BUT the whole correcting both of this fault and all other our Vices and Misdemeanors is to be fetch'd from Philosophy into whose bosom our Choice and Affections having guided us from our very Childhood we after being toss'd with a great Storm are fled upon these most grievous turns of State into the same Harbour from whence we had put forth O Philosophy thou Guide of Life Instructress in Vertue and Correctress of Vices what could not only we be but the very Life of men without thee thou hast founded Cities thou hast invited scatter'd men to live in Communities thou hast link'd them one to another first in Habitations then in Marriages and then in Communication by Letters and Words thou wast the Inventress of Laws thou the Mistress of Manners and Discipline we fly to thee seek help from thee to thee we commit our selves as formerly in great part so now entirely and in whole for one day led well and according to thy Precepts is to be prefer'd before an immortality in Vice Whose succors therefore should we rather make use of than thine who hast both freely bestow'd on us Tranquillity of Life and taken away from us the Terror of Death yet Philosophy is so far from receiving Praise suitable to the Benefits she hath confer'd on man's Life that she is by the most slighted nay by many revil'd O that any one should dare to villifie the Parent of Life and stain his Conscience with such Parricide should offer to be so unnatural and ungrateful as to accuse her whom he ought to reverence although he could not comprehend but this errour and gross darkness is in my opinion cast over the minds of the ignorant because they are not able to look so far backwards nor do think that they were the Philosophers by whom first the Life of men was civiliz'd Which thing though we see to have been most ancient yet we confess the name to be but modern SECT III. The Study of Wisdom of the same standing with man FOR as to Wisdom who can deny it to be ancient not for the thing only but also the name which acquir'd this honourable name among the Ancients from the knowing of Divine and Humane things as also the Elements and Causes of every being Therefore have we receiv'd by Tradition of those seven that they were both nam'd and accounted Sages by the Greeks and wise men by our Country-men and many Ages before of c Lycurgus in whose time Homer is said to have been before d the building of Rome and in the Heroical Ages of Ulysses and Nestor that they both truly were and were reputed such Nor would there have been the
The Five Days DEBATE AT Cicero's House IN TUSCULUM Upon 1. Comforts against Death 2. Patience under Pain 3. The Cure of Discontent 4. The Government of the Passions 5. The Chief End of Man Between Master and Sophister LONDON Printed for Abel Swalle at the sign of the Unicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls 1683. TO THE READER IT may seem advisable to give some short accompt of the ensuing Work to obviate such Exceptions as are likely to be made against it in this censorious Age. That it is a Translation is own'd which infers no more than that all the World speak not the same Language but if Sense be common and Wisdom not ingross'd by any Age or Place then must it withall be concluded that Interpretation is beneficial This Book was never hitherto made English yet in its own Tongue hath been still reputed among the choicest Pieces of Humane Learning and sure in Discourses of this Nature the intelligent Reader doth not value Tully by the elegancy of his Style but soundness of Judgment and orderly deduction of Arguments True Philosophy being a ray of right Reason shines equallâ— in all Languages yet is more effectual when manag'd by a Master of Eloquution in earnest as concern'd in the very Cases which he Debates The Author of this Treatise famous for admirable Parts had by his industry and success in pleading Causes attain'd to great Wealth and Honour but upon alteration of the Government was oblig'd to retire to his Seat at Tusculum where the Scene of his Five Days Debate is laid The Subject matter of highest Importance suitable to the gravity of his Person and occasion of the times Cicero aged sixty years and beset with many State-Enemies put himself on this guard against the approaches of Natural Death or surprizes of an Assassinate These Consolations supported him under the affliction of his Daughter Tullia lately deceased in Child-bed He that had formerly rul'd the Bar by the Power of his Eloquence and sat Prince in the Roman Senate having withdrawn himself from the Insolence of a Victorious Army diverts his Melancholy upon these nobler Studies Thus disengag'd from Noise and Business from the vain Pomp of numerous but specious Friends he attends to his better part enquires after a State of true Happiness Here advises with the Ancient Sages and grave Philosophers of Greece These for the most part especially Socrates determine it to consist in a Peace of mind through the Exercise of Vertue ranging the Affections under the Obedience of Reason To assert the Dignity of Humane Nature in its Primitive Institution the excellency of the Soul as to its Original sistence Operations and Duration to settle the Empire of Reason a Liberty which no external Force can controul and that braves the atmost malice of Fortune These are steps by which the Spirit raiseth it self up to Object adequate to its Faculties contemplates the Beauties of the Universe wonderful order of the Celestial Motions and by the Chain of Causes ascends up to that all wise Power which at first dispos'd and always governs them An Idea of Wisdom did in some measure appear to the diligent searchers after Truth but in practice occur'd insufficiency of Knowledge and frailty of Resolution Whereupon Cicero puts himself upon enquiry after the Causes of our early Depravation Mankind must be govern'd by Conscience true but that must be inform'd by a Law antecedent to positive Constitutions which being in different Countries divers would leave the Boundaries of Good and Evil as litigious as those of Empire We are ordain'd for Honour but there is a vain applause the counterfeit of true Glory Besides Judgment often renders to Passion or Interest so that he was sensible how short the Best are of Perfection Indeed he follows the Probable Doctors rather than the Positive for to say the truth as to the Particulars of a future State what can frail man unassisted by Divine Revelation comprehend or deliver for certain Our Senses make no faithful report of Things beyond their narrow Sphere Our most quick-sighted Mind hardly penetrates the surface of objects lying in our way Nor can we recover things past as the order of the Creation beyond the help of Records without Divine Tradition This uncertainty of Natural Knowledge in the highest Points whilst it contributes to a conviction of its own present insufficiency for recovering the end to which it was once ordain'd demonstrates the need we have of a safer guidance than that of our own Wisdom and inhances the Benefit of Supernatural Truths From this doubtful apprehension as to a future condition and frailty of Nature our Author is mov'd to resolve all his care into an affiance in the paternal goodness of God upon this he suspends comfortable hopes and seems already to breath after a Blessed Eternity Philosophy had no mean design to repair our decai'd Natures and advance us to the perswasion of a certain Immortality This glorious purpose a Covenant of Grace in the Sacred Indentures ingross'd doth more amply effect Be nothing of this understood to arraign at the Bar of the written Law those Nations whom God through his unsearchable Counsels had for some time left to the enquiring out his Being and Will by the dim Light of Nature and their impaired Reason Only suffice it that we know there is no other way to Happiness than by complying with those easie and honourable terms of Reconciliation offer'd A Royal Pardon however full hath been revok'd when not receiv'd with thankfulness Again that we mistake not Privilege for Performance nor exalt our selves by looking down with scorn and censure upon others under unlike Circumstances but rather as in truth we ought place our selves with them upon the same level at the more competent Tribunal of Natural Conscience common to us both and there take an impartial Tryal whether their attainments from Reason do not aggravate our improficiency under Grace and consign us over to a less tolerable doom Can we read that Socrates by Arguments drawn from the visible World and the reflex acts of his own mind could collect the Souls Immortality a future Judgment Rewards and Punishments hear him declare that in Contemplation hereof he prepar'd himself so to live as that his Apology might find acceptance in that day nay further maintain that we ought rather to submit to the most infamous Death than quit the profession of an honest Principle Lastly can we see him refusing unwarrantable delivery from Prison seal this Doctrine with his Blood aveng'd in the signal and speedy Destruction of his Capital Enemies Can we read these eminent Instances of improvement in Morals and not be provok'd to call our selves to account with what ready submission have we received Truths deliver'd us upon Divine Testimony Do we give them that Obedience which their Authority challenges Are we prepar'd to contend for them if Providence order the Tryal at the price of our Lives If in this Scale any of us
that Souls abide after they are gone out of the Body but not always The Stoicks held the Soul to be a hot Breath that is a Body compounded of Air and Fire so consequently subject to Dissolution but not suddenly upon expiring The Souls of the loose and debauched they fancied to abide a time accordingly shorter but those of the just and resolute to the next Conflagration of the World n The Homer of the Philosophers Not only because as Homer led and excelled in Poetry so Plato in Philosophy but also more because as the continued Epique Poem of Homer was that rich Spring from whence the following Poets drew the partial Arguments of their Poetry so the Dialogues of Plato are that well-stored Repertory of Wisdom from whence the succeeding Philosophers have set up their several Sects with their respective Opinions So that what the one furnished in gross the others deal out by retail SECT XXXIII The Arguments of Panaetius answered THESE Reasons may be disprov'd for they proceed from ignorance that when there is speech about the Eternity of Souls it is meant of the Understanding which is always free from any turbulent Motion not of those parts wherein Passions Wrath and Lusts inhabit which o he against whom these Objections are raised supposeth remov'd from the Understanding and lodg'd in distinct Apartments For likeness more appeareth in Beasts whose Souls have no reason But the likeness of men is more visible in the shape of their Bodies and the Souls themselves it much imports in what kind of Body they be lodg'd for there proceed many Impressions from the Body which quicken the understanding many which dull it p Aristotle indeed saith that all ingenious men are of a melancholly Complexion so that I have the less reason to be troubled that I am none of the quickest And as if the Problem were agreed upon subjoyns a reason why it cometh to be so Now if there be such great influence see the Production in the Body upon the habit of the Mind and these whatever they be are all that maketh the likeness the likeness of Soul infers no necessity why it should be born To pass likeness would Panaetius could be present he liv'd with Africanus I would enquire of him whom of all his Kindred was Africanus's Brother's Grandson like In shape his very Father in life so like any Villain that he was by far the basest of all Like to whom too was the Grandchild of P. Crassus both a wise and eloquent man as also the Sons and Grandsons of many other excellent Personages whom it is no ways material to name on this occasion But what drive we at have we forgot that this is the Scope of our present discourse after we had spoken sufficiently upon Eternity further to prove that there is no evil in death though Souls were also to be extinct S. True I minded it but all the while you were discoursing upon Eternity was willing you should run on wide of the Point in hand o He against whom these Objections are raised Plato p Aristotle indeed saith that all ingenious men are of a melancholy Temper In his Problems Sect. 30. Choler adust hath the predominancy in them and they are upon the confines of madness SECT XXXIV Upon Supposition of the Souls mortality death is not evil being a departure from evils M. YOU look high I see and would fain be removing to Heaven I hope that will be our portion but suppose as those Gentlemen would have it to be that Souls do not remain after death I see we are cut off from the hopes of a more blessed Life but what evil doth that opinion import Suppose the Soul so to perish as the Body is there then any pain or indeed any sense at all in the Body after death No body saith so although Epicurus chargeth that on Democritus his Followers deny it neither is there any sense therefore left in the Soul for that it self is no where where then is the Evil for there is no third Subject is it because the parting of the Soul from the Body passeth not without pain Should I believe it to be so how small a business is that and I take it to be untrue for it happens frequently without Sense nay sometimes with Pleasure And that whole concern make the most of it is of small import for it indureth but a Moment That consideration perplexeth or rather torments a departure from all those things which are good in this Life Look whether it may not more truly be said from the Evils thereof Why should I now bewail mans Life I might truly and have title to do so but what needs it when I am labouring to take off the opinion that we shall be miserable after death to make even Life more miserable by bemoaning it We have done this in that Book wherein we comforted our selves as much as we could Therefore to state the question aright Death withdraws us from Evils not from Goods This Point was so largely debated by Hegesias the Cyrenaick that he is reported to have been prohibited by King Ptolomy to dispute publickly on that Subject because many upon the hearing it made themselves away Callimachus hath an Epigram upon Cleombrotus the Ambraciote who saith he had no misfortune befell him but upon reading Plato's Dialogue threw himself from the Wall into the Sea And that Hegesias whom I mention'd left a Book entitled The resolv'd Passenger because one departing out of Life by forbearing to eat is disswaded by his Friends whom he answers by reckoning up the Miseries of man's Life I could do the like though not to that degree as he who thinks it expedient for none at all to live Others I wave Is it expedient for us to do so who being strip'd of the Comforts and Ornaments both of Family and Court had we dy'd before Death had most assuredly remov'd us from Evils and not from Goods SECT XXXV Or from uncertain Goods SUppose we then one that has no Evil hath met with some misfortune q Metellus the Honourable had four Sons Ay but Priam had fifty and seventeen of them born of his lawful Wife Fortune had the same power over both though she made use of it only upon one for many Sons Daughters Grandsons Grand-daughters laid Metellus in the Grave but the hand of an Enemy slew Priam before the Altar where he had taken Sanctuary after the loss of so numerous a Progeny Had he been deceas'd whilst his Children surviv'd the State of the Empire continu'd firm By Barbary Guards attended In Palace carv'd and vaulted Resolve me whither he had departed from Goods or Evils from Goods he would at that time have thought But in truth it had fallen out better for him nor had that Ditty been sung to so lamentable a Tune All these I saw in Ashes lay'n Priam by the proud Victor slain Joves sacred Altar blood profane As if at that time any thing could have befallen him better
than Death Now had he been taken away before he had escap'd those Evils but being so at this time he lost the Sense of them Our Friend Pompey after a sore Sickness at Naples was pretty well recover'd the Neapolitans put on Garlands so did the Burgers of Puteoli no doubt The adjacent Towns deputed Members of their own to congratulate him in the Name of their Corporations a formal piece of insignificant Courtship to say truth and like the Greeks but yet successful Pray then inform me if he had at that time dy'd would he have been taken away from good or evil things To be sure he had from unhappy ones for then would he not have been engag'd in a War with his Father-in-law he would not have taken up Arms without any Preparation he would not have left home not fled out of Italy he had not after the loss of his Army fallen naked into the hands and Poignard of Slaves his Children had not been left in a deplorable condition and all his Fortunes possess'd by the Conqueror He that by departing then had dy'd in a most honourable Estate by prolonging his Life how many great and incredible Calamities did he suffer q Metellus the Honourable had four Sons Qu. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus had been himself Consul Censor Augur and had triumph'd over Andriscus the Mock Philip Usurper of the Kingdom of Macedon he saw three Sons Consuls whereof one Censor and Triumphal also a fourth Pretor These he left all in good Estate and three Daughters Married by whom and his numerous Progeny he was accompanied at his Funeral having liv'd the Favourite of Fortune indulgent to the last SECT XXXVI Such as we shall not miss THESE accidents are escap'd by dying although they never actually befall us yet because of their possibility But men do not consider themselves liable to these chances every one hopes for Metellus's Fortune As though either there were more fortunate than unhappy or there were any certainty in man's Estate or it were more prudent to hope than fear But be this granted that men are depriv'd of their good things by death is it therefore consequent that the Dead lack the Conveniencies of Life and that it is a miserable thing so to do To be sure they must say so Can he that hath no Being be in want of any thing the very name of want is sad because it imports thus much The man had something hath it not desireth looketh after needeth it These are I take it the Inconveniencies of want One wants Eyes to be blind is discomfortable Another Children so is it to be Childless This holds in the Living but none of the Dead want any comforts of Life no nor Life it self I speak of the Dead which have no Being we who have a Being though we are without Horns or Wings would any one of us say he wanted them None I trow For if one have not that which is neither for his use nor agreeable to his Nature he doth not want it though he is sensible he hath it not This Argument is to be urged over and over when that is made out which is unquestionable upon supposition of the Souls mortality but that there is so total an Abolition in death as that there is not left the least Suspition of any Sense This therefore being fully resolv'd it must be strictly search'd to find what it is to want that so there be no ambiguity left in the Term. Want therefore is the being without that which one desireth to have for desire is imply'd in missing unless in such case as when we speak of having miss'd the Fit of an Ague in a more restrain'd notion of the word The term of wanting is farther used in another Sense when one is without a thing and sensible that he is without it and yet not much concern'd about it but to want any evil is not properly spoken for that would import no sorrow for it The opposite is properly said to want good which is evil but neither doth the Living want what he doth not need Yet it may be understood of a living man that he wants a Kingdom now this cannot with any Logical Truth be said of you it might of Tarquin when he was depos'd and banish'd from his Kingdom but the term can by no means be understood of a dead man for want is proper to one that hath Sense but the Dead have no Sense therefore neither do the Dead want Though what need we syllogize on this Point since we see the matter stands in no such great need of Logic SECT XXXVII Since it hath not appear'd dreadful even to common Soldiers HOW often have not only our Commanders but whole Armies also charg'd the Enemy without any probability of coming back alive Had death been to be fear'd r L. Brutus would never have hindered the return of that Tyrant which himself had expell'd by losing his Life in the Engagement Nor would Decius the Father in Battle with the Latins the Son of the Hetrurians and Grandson with Pyrrhus have run upon the Point of the Enemies Sword Spain had not seen the two Scipio's in one War fall for their Country Cannae Paulus Aemilius Venusia Marcellus the Latins Albinus the Lucanians Gracchus is any one of these at this day miserable No nor immediately after they had expir'd for none can be miserable who is insensible But that very thing is grievous to be without Sense grievous indeed if one were to miss it But it being notorious that he can be nothing who hath himself no Being what can be grivous to him who is without any thing and hath no Sense that he is so Although we have inculcated this Argument too often already but for this purpose because all that distress of mind which ariseth from the apprehension of death is grounded on this For whosoever shall sufficiently perceive what is clearer than the light that upon perishing of Body and Soul together and the whole living Creature being destroy'd and an utter Abolition made of the entire compound that Animal which was before is annihilated he will clearly discern that there is no difference between a flying Horse which never was and King Agamemnon And that M. Camillus doth now no more regard this Civil War than I did the taking of Rome when he was alive Why then would both Camillus have griev'd had he thought these things would have come to pass about three hundred and fifty years after and should I grieve if I thought any Foreign Nation would be Masters of our City ten thousand years hence Because the dearness of our Country is so great that we measure it not by our Sense but it s own safety r L. Brutus L. Junius Brutus the first Roman Consul after the expulsion of Tarquin in a Battle for the reducing him charg'd Aruns the Son of Tarquin so furiously that they gave each the other his deaths wound Decius Mus the Father in the War with the
time who hath compleatly discharg'd the Office of an accomplish'd Vertue Many things have occurred to render death seasonable to my self which I wish had succeeded for nothing of new Acquisition was afterwards made the Duties of my Life were fully discharg'd there remain'd only Combats with Fortune wherefore if single reason cannot be prevalent enough to make us neglect Death yet let our past Life so far prevail with us as that we should think we have liv'd enough and too long For though Sense be gone yet the dead do not want the highest and most durable Goods of Praise and Glory however they perceive them not for though Glory have nothing in it self why it should be pursu'd yet it follows Vertue as its shadow The true judgment of the multitude concerning good men if at any time it be such is more to be commended than that those men should be happy for that reason b So loathsom The Massagetes and Dervices counted their Friends miserable if they dyed a natural Death so when they grew Aged first sacrificed them and then feasted on their Flesh SECT XLVI Glory after Death should abate the fear of dying in Prosperity NOW I cannot say in whatever Sense it be taken that Lycurgus Solon do want the Glory of their Laws and good Government of their Countries that Themistocles Epaminondas want that of Martial Valor and sooner shall Neptune swallow up Salamina it self than the Memory of the Salaminian Trophy and Leuctra shall be rais'd out of Boeotia before the Glory of the Leuctrian Fight Nay much longer shall it be before Fame shall forget Curius Fabricius Calatinus the two Scipios the two Africans Maximus Marcellus Paulus Cato Laelius innumerable others whose Copy whosoever shall have transcrib'd measuring it not by popular Fame so much as the true Commendation of good Patriots That man if occasion shall so require will with unshaken Resolution advance towards Death wherein we know there is either the greatest Good or no Evil. Nay he will choose to dye whil'st he is still in a prosperous State for the accession of superfluities which might be cast in cannot be so pleasing as the diminution of those just measures of good already attain'd will be grievous To which purpose seemeth that word of the Lacedemonian when Diagoras the Rhodian a noble Master in the Olympian Games had seen two Sons in one day win the Prize in the same Games he came up to the old man and gave him joy in these words Dye Diagoras for you would not mount up to Heaven and be immortal c The Greeks value that occasion highly and perhaps overvalue it or at least in those days did so and he that spoke thus to Diagoras looking upon it as an extraordinary Priviledge that three Victors in the Olympian exercises should come out of one Family thought it disadvantageous to him to tarry longer in this World expos'd to the vicissitudes of Fortune Now have I in short as I thought sufficiently answered you for you had granted me that the Dead were under no evil But I have been earnest the more to enlarge hereupon because this is the greatest comfort in Mourning and the loss of Friends for we ought with patience to bear our own sorrow and what is by choice brought upon us for our own concern lest we be found guilty of self-love That other surmise creates us intollerable disquiet to think that those dear Friends whose lost Society we lament are in a State of feeling those miseries which men commonly conceive This conceit I was desirous utterly to remove from my self and thereupon have been perhaps somewhat of the longest c The Greeks value that occasion highly Nothing is so renown'd as the Olympick Games amongst the Greeks for Jumping Running Wrestling Hurling Pitching for Horse-matches and Chariot-Races it was the Academy of all Greece The Victors at those Games were in that general Assembly of the Greeks as in a Theater of Glory proclaim'd crown'd and returning home receiv'd in Triumph into their respective Cities where all their Life-times after they enjoy'd exceeding great Immunities These Masteries in bodily exercise Tully doth not magnifie nor did Socrates before him approve the fondness of his Country-men in deferring that parrade of Pomp on them or their complacency in it who valued themselves at that rate upon such account but these prefer the University Learning and those Studies which improve the Mind better the Man and promote good order in the Governvernment SECT XLVII An Epilogue after the Mode of the Greek Rhetoricians who would perswade us that Death is the greatest good that can befall man upon Divine Testimonies S. YOU of the longest not in my judgment I assure you for the former part of your Discourse wrought in me a desire to dye The latter sometimes no unwillingness other times an indifferency but upon the whole Tenor of the Debate there hath been effected a Conviction in me not to account death among things evil M. Do we therefore still lack a Conclusion d after the manner of Rhetoricians or is it now time for us quite to abandon that practice S. Nay but do not you desert that Art which you have always advanc'd and that with good reason for That to speak the truth hath advanc'd you But what is this Epilogue for I would fain hear it whatever it be M. e They are wont in Disputations to produce the Judgment of the immortal Gods in the case concerning Death f nor do they devise them themselves but report them upon the Authority of Herodotus and diverse others First of all Cleobis and Biton Sons of the Argive Priestess are magnified The Story is well known it being the received Ceremony that she must ride in a Coach to a solemn and anniversary Sacrifice at the Temple some good distance out of Town and the Mules not being brought time enough then the young men before named stripping of their Garments annointed their Bodies with Oyl put themselves into the Traces so the Priestess lighting at the Temple having had her Chariot drawn by her Sons is said to have pray'd the Goddess to bestow upon them a reward of their Piety the greatest that could be given man by God Afterwards the young men having feasted with their Mother went to sleep and were found dead in the Morning A like Prayer Trophonius and Agamedes are said to have made these having built the Temple to Apollo at Delphi and coming to worship him requested no small reward of their work and pains specified nothing but what were best for man Apollo declared he would give it them the third day after which day was no sooner come but they were found dead Here they say that God hath determin'd the Question and that God too unto whom all the other Gods have deser'd above the rest the power of Divination d After the manner of Rhetoricians Tully having premised those Reasons upon which he grounds the immortality or removes the danger of death other instances florid
have none Another Property of Vertue that it is uniform The inward Man hath an entireness of Parts o If you be fenced with Armour of Vulcan 's making A third Property of true Vertue known by the Author not of Humane Forge it is an whole Armour of Gods making He alludes to the Panoply or Suit of Armour in Homer related to have been made for Achilles by Vulcan p Make resistance The first direction to Patience is an early habit of Courage q Or Minos agreeable to Jove 's will Minos the Law-giver of the Cretans is said for nine years to have held Correspondence with Jupiter The first Example that Pain is superable and both Soul and Body are hardened by Patience r And those also of Lycurgus Lycurgus living about the middle time between the destruction of Troy and building of Rome travelled into Creet then Egypt afterwards consulted the Delphick Oracle so gave Laws to his Country wherein he tramed up Youth to all hardship Active and Passive Valour Archery with other bodily Exercise A further Example of the Power of being bred to Hardship in disposing to Courage s Children at Sparta are so disciplin'd at the Altar On a certain day of the year Children were scourg'd at the Temple of Diana Orthia whose Image was conveyed away from the Taurick Chersâ—nese by Orestes and Iphigenia and there plac'd In this Exercise he who held out longest was called Victor at the Altar and some were beaten even to death Thus did that Idol still delight in humane blood what Cicero saith he heard when he was at Sparta of some Boys there whip'd to death that Plutarch an Age after confirms that he had seen so much is the World engag'd to that Religion which hath freed it from those inhumane Superstitions SECT XV. Inuring to labour disposeth the Mind to a patient enduring of Pain THERE is some difference between Labour and Pain they border indeed but yet somewhat differ Labour is an employment of Body or Mind in the discharge of some toilsom Work or Office But Pain is a rough motion in the Body ungrateful to the Senses The Greeks whose Language is more copious than ours call both by one Name For industrious men they call Pains-takingmen we more properly Laborious for it is one thing to labour another thing to be pain'd Greece sometimes at a loss for words though thou thinkest thy self always to abound in them It is one thing I say to be in Pain another to take Pains C. Marius was in Pain when his swellings in the Veins of his Feet were cut He took Pains when he march'd in sweltry weather yet there is also some likeness between them for t the being accustom'd to labour renders the enduring of Pain less difficult Upon this ground they who made the Platforms of Commonwealths in Greece provided that the Bodies of young men should be hardened by Labour u These the Spartans extended to Women also which in other States are treated with all tenderness and kept within doors to save their Beauties Now after the Ordinance of their Law-giver The Spartan Lasses such nice Breeding slight Who in Sun Dust and Toil take more delight To Run Swim the Eurotas Foes o'recome Than in Barbarians Pride a fruitful Womb. Therefore with these laborious Exercises Pain doth also sometimes intermingle They are thrust smitten flung and they fall So that the very labour doth bring a callous insensibility over the Pain t The being accustomed to labour renders the enduring of Pain less difficult A second direction for the acquiring Patience under Pain is an early habit of Pains taking u This the Spartans extended to Women also Lycurgus ordained that Boys and Girls should promiscuously wrestle in their Courts for Exercise Plato in his Politicks much inclinable to the Spartans allows the same upon Supposition that the Vertues both of Men and Women are the same which notwithstanding the Offices of both Sexes are different and so should be their Education SECT XVI The Power of Exercise w NOw for Souldiery I mean our own not that of the Spartans whose March is in Tune to the sound of the Pipe and who use no incentive to Engagement x without Anapaests Our Train'd-Bands it is manifest first whence they receive their Denomination then what labour do they undergo how great in their March to carry more than a Fortnights Provision to carry their necessary Baggage to carry Palisado's for Buckler Sword Helmet our men count no more a burden than Breast Armes and Hands For they say that the pieces of Armour are a Souldiers Limbs which are all carried so titely that if occasion offers they can fling away their Baggage and stand to their Arms as though they were ready with their bare Limbs to make opposition What means the training of Legions what means the running the shouting at the onset how laborious is it from hence cometh that Spirit in Battails prepared to receive Wounds Bring me a Souldier of like Courage that hath not been exercised he will seem a Woman Such difference is there between a fresh and veteran Army as we have found by experience the Age of new-listed Souldiers is ordinarily better but to endure labour despise Wounds custom teacheth Nay we often see men carried out of the Battle wounded and then this raw and unpractis'd Souldier at never so slight a Wound to make most lamentable out-crys but the experienc'd and old-beaten one and for that reason more Valiant looking for a Chirurgion to dress him saith Patroclus I here your helping hands require Least I through Wounds by insulting Foes expire Nor can my bleeding any ways be staid Unless by your better skill death be delaid For numerous maim'd all Chirurgions hands forest all Nor is there room in any Hospital w Now for Souldiery A third direction to the acquiring Patience is Exercise this is exemplified in Souldiers x Without Anapaests As Taratant taratant taratantara SECT XVII y THIS must be Eurypylus an old beaten Souldier when he continueth so long under Pain see how far he is from giving a mean spirited pittiful answer that he alledgeth a Reason why he should bear it patiently Who another doth a mortal blow intend Must know like hand lift up him to offend Patroclus will I trow carry him in and rest him on a Pallate that he may dress his Wound if he had any Humanity But I see no such matter for he is asking news of the Fight P. Tell me how do the Greeks the Field maintain The Day goeth harder than words can explain P. Cease then and dress your Wound Though Eurypylus should have been able yet Aesopus could not When by Hector 's Fortune our fierce Battle forc'd And what follows he relateth being all the while in Pain So ungovernable is Military Glory in a man of Honour Shall therefore an old Soldier be able to do this and shall not a Scholar and Wise man be able so to do Nay this may better and that not a little
if whining he that should render himself to such low Passion I should hardly allow for a man Which sighing too if it did Administer any real relief yet it were for all that to be consider'd what were the part of a gallant and couragious man but since it abateth nothing of Pain why do we chuse to disgrace our selves to no purpose For what is more discreditable to any man than crying like a Woman Now this Rule which is given about Pain is of larger extent for we must resist all Occurrences not only Pain with the like intention of Spirit Passion bursts forth Lust disturbeth We must fly for refuge into the same Fortress must stand to the same Arms but because our present Discourse is of Pain let us wave these Particulars It is therefore of main advantage towards the patient and calm enduring of Pain to consider with our whole heart as goes the word how honourable it is For we are naturally as I said before and oft'ner it must be said most eager and zealous upon Honour if we see any twinkling of that though but thorough a Crevis there is nothing which we are not ready to bear and go thorough with that we may obtain it It is from this race and eagerness of our Souls after true praise and Honour that those dangers in Battle are undertaken Men of Valour feel not their wounds in the Field or feel them they do but choose rather to dye than to part with the least punctilio of their Honour The Decii beheld the glittering Swords of their Enemies when they charg'd upon their main Body but the nobleness of their death and the glory of their Names render'd easie to them all the apprehension of wounds Can you imagine k that Epaminondas then gave a groan when he found his Life run out together with his Blood Since he left his Country in command over the Lacedemonians which he had found in subjection to them These are the Comforts these the Lenitives of the greatest Pains g I saw Mark Antony when he made his earnest defence being impeach'd upon the Varian Law touch the very ground with his Knee At the time of the Social War when Tully was about sixteen years of Age Qu. Varius Tribune of the Commons brought in a Bill that Inquisition should be made who had been Abettors of the Allies Incendiaries of that War this past and was call'd the Varian Law In it was a Title about Incest upon that head was Mark Antony indicted before Cassius Praetor whose Bar for his great severity was called the Rock of Defendants but Mark Antony an Orator vehement both in Words and Gesture being conscious of his own Innocency made his defence and was acquitted Some say the Slave accused to have held the Candle being wrack'd did in the most bitter Torments clear his Patron h For as Cross-bows wrought with Capstones The old Cross-bow cast Stones or shot off 120 pounds weight which did great Execution upon Walls or Towers almost a Mile distant from the Batteries i And other Engines As Hand-Cross-bows and Bows nay Slings with the greater jerk they are sent and the Axe on the Wood or Beetle on the Wedge the higher the hand is lift up and set on with a groan k That Epaminondas then gave a groan In the Battle of Mantinea after Epaminondas had led on gallantly and made many personal Charges he was unfortunately run thorough with a Javelin being fallen he demanded whether his Shield was safe when it was brought to him he kiss'd it as the Companion of his Labors and Glory again he enquir'd whether the Enemies were beaten and understanding that also he bid the Spear-head to be drawn out of his Wound and so with loss of much Blood triumphantly expir'd SECT XXV in Tryals at home YOU will say But l what are the Remedies in Peace what at Home what on the Bed of Sickness you call me back to consider the Philosophers who do not often engage in the Field Amongst whom m Dionysius of Heraclea a very fickle man after he had learn'd of Zeno to be couragious was by Pain brought to alter his judgment for being troubled with Gravel in the Kidneys in the midst of his roaring he cry'd out that his former Tenets about Pain were all false And when his Fellow-Pupil Cleanthes asked him what reason had prevail'd upon him to quit his Principle he replied Because I had studied Philosophy so much and yet could not endure Pain therefore he concluded that Pain was evil Now I have spent many years in Philosophy and yet cannot brook it therefore is Pain evil Then is Cleanthes after he had stamp'd on the ground reported to have repeated a Verse out of the Tragedy called Epigoxi Amphiarchus under ground hears't this Zeno he meant from whose Instructions he was vex'd that the other had degenerated n But Posidonius our Friend was no such man whom both I have often seen and will now relate what Pompey was wont to tell which was that as he came to Rhodes o in his return from his Government of Syria he had a desire to hear Posidonius read but he was inform'd that he was very ill being much afflicted with the Joynt-Gout however he had a desire to visit him as soon as he had seen him enquir'd of his Health and complemented him and withall added that he looked upon it as his great misfortune that he could not hear him He reply'd again But you can nor will I be so rude as that any bodily Pain should occasion that a Person of your high Quality should be disappointed in the Visit wherewith you have honoured me Hereupon he related how that as he lay on this Couch he disputed with much Gravity and at large upon this very subject that nothing was good but what was honourable and when the twitches of his Distemper would guird him sore that he said often Pain you do but loose your labour be as troublesom as you will I shall never confess you to be evil And indeed all eminent and renown'd Labours whatsoever by our contempt of them come to be within a possibility also of being sustained l What are the Remedies in Peace Having given Examples of Pain voluntarily submitted to for Glory he cometh to the part of more ordinary use concerning support under painful Diseases here from a twofold instance he demonstrates the question reducing the contrary to an absurdity in that of Dionysius the Heracleate and directly concluding it in that other of Posidonius m Dionysius of Heraclea Sirnam'd the Turn-coat because troubled with Sore-eyes as is elsewhere said or with the Stone as is here he turn'd from the Stoicks to the Cyrenaicks This account he gives of his change because he had been long learning Philosophy but had not yet attained to the Practical knowledge of it therefore the Doctrine was not true An absurd and inconsequential inference n But our Friend Posidonius was no such man As to be brought to alter
Greeks in engrossing Wisdom to themselves because of their Scholastical Niceties and in magnifying their war-like Atchievements beyond all measure whereas they were now fallen from their old Martial Glory the Lacedemonians having in great measure degenerated from the Constitutions of Lycurgus and the Athenians turn'd to servile Flattery u But the Cimbrians In Germany w And Celtiberians In Spain x That Refuge Mark the Artifice of Eloquution the name of death carrieth Terrour with it and is dismal to Humane Apprehension therefore he substitutes for it that of a Refuge a place of retreat a desired Port but yet to count any Pain too great to be stood under so as to resolve against continuance in Life is a Stoical repugnancy and derogatory from true Fortitude y As the Dolphin did Arion of Methymna Arion an excellent Harper having amass'd much Wealth by his Art in the City of Greece upon his return home the Sea-men discovering his charge of Money Pirates as they were conspir'd to heave him over-board he beg'd of them the respit till he could tune his Harp on the Deck which as he touch'd the Dolphins playing about the sides of the Ship delighted with his Aires one of them took him up on its back gently and wafted him over safe to Tenarus Methymna is a City of Lesbos the Territory about it famous for generous Wines and the Country of Arion z As the Sea-born Horses of Pelops bestow'd upon him by Neptune Pelops the Son of Tantalus came from Phrygia into that part of Greece from him denominated Peloponnesus there he fell in Love with Hippodamia Her Father had received an Oracle that he was to dye when his Daughter married and thereupon set up a Race of Chariots in the Isthmos of Corinth at the Altar of Neptune the Prize was his Daughter to the Victor but the loser was kill'd many had he beaten and slain in the Race when Pelops having received a Set of Coach-Horses from Neptune and brib'd the Coach-man of Oenomaus to break his Wheel in driving as he pass'd by slew the Father and carried off the Daughter and with the same Horses pass'd over Sea The Cure of Discontent The Causes and Remedy of the Depravation of Humane Nature are premis'd Sect. 1 2 3. Book III. SECT I. The Reluctancy of deprav'd Man against his own Cure VVHAT should I take to be the Cause most worthy Brutus since we consist of Body and Soul why an Art hath been sought out for recovering and preserving the Bodies Health and the usefulness of it a attributed to the Invention of the Gods but the Physick of the Soul was neither so much wanted before it was found out nor so much frequented since its discovery nor is so agreeable and accepted by many nay is suspected and loath'd by the greater part Is it because we judge of the Bodies Infirmity and Pain by the Soul but have no Sense of the Souls Maladies by the Body So it happens that the Soul does not pass judgment of it self b till that which is to give the judgment be distemper'd Now if Nature had brought us into the World with an Original Ability to look into and clearly discern her Ordinance and that under her surest conduct we might pass the course of our Life there would be no reason why any should have use of Logick or Philosophy But now she hath put into us only some small glimmerings which we being suddenly corrupted with ill habits and opinions so far stiffle that the Light of Nature doth no where appear for there are Seeds of Vertues innate in our very Souls which if they might spring up till they come to maturity Nature it self would conduct us to Happiness of Life But now as soon as we are brought into this World and taken up we are presently encompass'd with all Corruption of Manners and falshood of Opinion that we may seem to have suck'd in Error almost with our Nurses Milk But when we are brought home to Parents and then turn'd over to Masters we are season'd with such variety of Mistakes that Truth is forc'd to yield to falshood and Nature it self to prejudicate Opinion a Attributed to the Invention of the Gods Apollo and Aesculapius b Till that which is to give the judgment be distemper'd Therefore not only the inferior Faculties of Will and Passions are disordered but the Superior Power of the Soul the Understanding is disturb'd and Sick contrary to the answer which he gave Panaetius above about the Sickness of the Soul This in reference to the mind consists in a Corruption of Judgment and reprobate Sense only curable by attention and assent to sound Doctrine SECT II. Further Causes of the Depravation of Humane Nature THEN come in the Poets These carrying a great appearance of Learning and Wisdom are heard read con'd without Book and stick in our Memories but superadd to all as it were our highest Master the People and the whole Multitude on every side conspiring in favour of Vice then we become entirely debauch'd in judgments and fall off from our very Natures So that they seem to me to have envy'd us the Prerogative of the best Nature who have judg'd nothing better for man nothing more desirable nothing more excellent than Honours than Commands than Popular Glory toward which the best of men pursue and affecting that true Honour which Nature doth propose as the sole object of its most diligent Enquiry grasp at meer Emptiness and Vanity These pursue no substantial and grand Figure of Vertue but a superficial and shadow'd resemblance of Glory For Glory is a solid thing and substantial not a faint shadow it is the concurrent praise of good men the incorrupt approbation of such as judge rightly concerning excellency in Vertue that answers to Vertue as the eccho Which being the attendant on honest Actions is not to be rejected by good men but that which apeth it popular vogue a rash and inconsiderate cryer up of Vices for the most part by a semblance of Honour sets a false varnish in the place of a true and natural Beauty Men out of this blindness having been imported with an ardent desire after some sort of Excellency yet having withall entertain'd a false Notion wherein it consisted and what are its Properties some have utterly subverted the Government of their Countries others have fallen themselves in the Contest Now these propounding to themselves the noblest end do not so much willfully miscarry as through mistake of the way What shall we say of them who are acted by the love of Money or Pleasures and whose Spirits are to that degree disturb'd as that they come little short of madness which is the Case of all unwise men can no course be taken for their Cure Is it because Maladies of the Soul are less hurtful than those of the Body or because Bodies may be cur'd there is no Physick for Souls SECT III. That the Soul may have Remedies for its Distempers WHEREAS in truth
our dead and ne're repine But all our Mourning to one day confine Therefore it is in our Power to abandon Grief at our pleasure in compliance with our occasions Now since the matter is in our Power is there any occasion of such moment to be comply'd with as a present riddance of Discontent It was observ'd that those who saw Cn. Pompey assassin'd being put in fear for their own Lives at that most deplorable and dismal Spectacle because they saw themselves surrounded with the Enemies Fleet did at that time nothing else but hearten the Rowers and further their escape but when they had gain'd Tide then began to break out into Grief and Lamentations Fear therefore could give time of trouble to them and cannot Reason and true Wisdom repell it SECT XXVIII Rectify'd by consideration that our Sorrow availeth nothing NOW what can be of more importance to the laying down Sorrow than a Sense that there is no advantage by it and that it is admitted upon a pure mistake And if it can be laid down it can also not be admitted It must therefore be confess'd that Discontent is admitted by Will and upon Choice Now this is evident by their Patience who having often gone thorough many Adventures bear more patiently whatever befalls them and suppose they are harden'd against all Sense of Fortune as he in Euripides Had this day first arisen in a Cloud Had I not long the dangerous Ocean Plow'd Cause were of Grief as when shy Colts admit Into their tender mouths the curbed Bit. Habit of Woes now makes me dedolent Since then the being tir'd out with Miseries alleviates our Sorrows it must necessarily be perceiv'd that the object of our Sufferings is not the real Cause and Fountain of our Grief the greatest Philosophers who yet have not attain'd to perfect Wisdom e do they not understand that they are under the greatest Evil for they want Wisdom Nor is there any greater Evil than want of Wisdom yet they do not Mourn Why so because Evils of this sort have not annex'd to them that it is fit and reasonable our Duty to be troubled for ones not being wise which yet we do annex to that trouble of mind which implys Mourning and is the greatest of all Therefore Aristotle accusing the Ancient Philosophers who thought that Philosophy through their Wits was perfected saith They were either great Fools or very Vain but that he saw within few years there was made a great Accession so that in short time it would come to be compleat Theophrastus also lying on his Death-bed is said to have accus'd Nature for giving f Rooks and Ravens a long life who have no occasion for it when men whom it most imported were so short-liv'd whose Age if it might have been of a longer Duration the Consequence would have been that through the Complement of all Arts mens life would have been polish'd in every part of Learning Therefore he complain'd that he must be taken away as soon as he had but begun to have sight of this What among the other Philosophers do not the best and gravest confess their ignorance in many things and that after the greatest proficiency they have still more to learn and yet are not discontented at the Sense of that Folly which remaineth in them though nothing be more Evil for there is no opinion mingled of an officious Grief What say we of them g who do not think it suitable for men to mourn Such was Q. Maximus at the burial of his Son a man that had borne the Consulship L. Paulus after the loss of two Sons within few days Such M. Cato at the death of his Son Praetor Elect. Such the rest whom we have collected in our Book of Consolation What else pacify'd them but only a Sense that Sorrow and Lamentation were not proper for men Therefore what some having taken for Duty are wont to abandon themselves to Melancholly that these men judging dishonourable have repell'd Sorrow from whence is evident that Discontent is not in the Nature of the thing but from our own opinion e Do they not understand that they are under the greatest Evil Tully doth not speak it positively that imperfection is the greatest Evil but by way of Interrogation as according to the Stoical Paradox doubtless insincerity is worse and it is hard to determine that he who hath not reach'd the Top in gradual attainments must therefore lye at the bottom but if the question had been ask'd in general why men are not so much affected with the wants of their Soul as Bodily or outward Damages the Resolution had been obvious because we cannot want or desire what we do not know therefore he makes instance in the greatest Philosophers Do they not understand Some active dissatisfaction they had in their present Estate which put them upon further pursuit after Wisdom but they were still much under the Power of an intellectual Lithargy Deficiency in Morals was less than their burthen because they were unacquainted with the indispensable Sanction of the Divine Law Had not those Direction Motives and Assistances to work in them a Spiritual Sorrow which might engage them to be restless till they had obtain'd such degrees of integrity as this our frail condition admits f Rooks and Ravens It is a fabulous Tradition from Hesiod but Aristotle affirms no other Creature lives longer than Man but the Elephant g Who do not think it suitable for men to mourn It hath been observ'd that the old Roman Laws prescribe Women a just time of Mourning are silent of Men whence hath also been infer'd that they look'd upon Mourning as not very suitable for them SECT XXIX That our Sorrows are by misapprehensions aggravated beyond their own Natures ON the opposite part these things are alledged Who is so senseless as to mourn on his own Choice Nature brings Grief which say they h your Crantor owns must be given way to for it pusheth on and follows hard nor can be any ways resisted therefore that Oileus in Sophocles who had but a little before comforted Telamon upon the death of his Ajax when he came to hear i of his own broke forth into Passion upon whose change of mind is this said None to such perfect Wisdom can pretend Having with Counsel staid his sinking Friend But that he when inconstant Fortunes course Shall against his concerns direct his Force To the surprizing Blow renders his Wits All his grave Rules and sage Advice forgets They who dispute thus endeavour to prove that Nature can be no ways resisted yet they confess that greater Resentments are assum'd than Nature imposeth What madness is it therefore for us to exact the same of others But there are several Causes of admitting grief First that opinion of Evil upon the sight of which and a perswasion that it is such trouble of the mind is a necessary consequent Then again men suppose they gratifie the Dead the more heavily they Mourn
enquire into every opinion of the rest if it be possible that this excellent as it were Sanction of an happy Life may agree with all their Judgments SECT XXX The different Opinions about the chief Good NOW these Opinions about the Supream good have as I suppose been kept and maintain'd First four single ones that Nothing is Good but what is Honest as the Stoick that Nothing is Good but Pleasure as Epicurus that Nothing is Good but freedom from Pain as x Hierom that Nothing is Good but to enjoy the prime Goods of Nature either all or the greatest as Carneades disputed it against the Stoicks These then are single the following are mix'd The three sorts of Goods the greatest of the Soul the next of the Body external the third as the Peripateticks nor held the ancient Academicks much otherwise Pleasure with Honesty Clitomachus and Calliphon coupled but Freedom from Pain y Diodorus the Peripatetick joyn'd to Honesty These are the Opinions which held their Station any time for those of z Aristo a Pyrrho b Herillus and some others are vanish'd away What claim these can make out let us consider omitting the Stoicks whose opinion I seem already to have enough defended And indeed the cause of the Peripateticks is open'd except Theophrastus and if any of his Followers do very weakly dread and shrink from Pain the rest may do what they usually do magnifie the Gravity and Dignity of Vertue and when they have extoll'd it to Heaven that which such Eloquent men are wont copiously to do it is easie to run down and undervalue all other things in comparison thereto for it is not free for them who hold that praise is to be sought with Pain to deny them to be happy who have acquir'd it since though they are in some Evils yet this name of happy hath a great length and breadth x Hierom. Of Rhodes y Diodorus Surnam'd Cronus z Aristo He held besides Vice and Vertue all to be indifferent a Pyrrho He taught Nothing could be known b Herillus His Tenet that Knowledge is the chiefest Good SECT XXXI The denomination of the whole is from the greater part FOR as Merchandize is said to be gainful Husbandry fruitful not if the one be always free from any loss the other always from any injury of the Weather but if for far the more part there prove good success in both so Life not only if it be cram'd with Goods on every side but if in much the greater and more important part Goods do preponderate it may rightly be call'd happy Happiness of Life therefore in these mens Scheme will follow Vertue even to Punishment and enter with it into the Bull upon the warrant of Aristotle Xenocrates Speusippus Polemo nor will be corrupted by small blandishments to forsake it The same will be the judgment of Calliphon and Diodorus both of which so embraces honesty that he esteems all things which are without it to be set behind it and at a great distance too The rest seem to be harder beset yet they save themselves ashore Epicure Hierom and if there be any that care to defend that Eloquent Carneades for there is none but thinks the Soul judge of these Goods and instructs it how it may be able to contemn those things which seem good or evil For what you take to be the case of Epicurus the same will be that of Hierom and Carneades and in truth all the rest for who is not sufficiently provided against Death or Pain Begin we at him if you please whom we call Lasche and voluptuary What do you take him to fear Death or Pain who calls that day wherein he is a dying blessed and being in very great Pains yet silences them with the memory and recalling to mind of his Inventions nor doth he this in such manner as that he might be thought to bolt forth some extemporary flash for this is his Sentiment about death that when the living Creature is dissolv'd all Sense is abolish'd but what is without Sense nothing concerns us About Pain also he hath certain Rules which he follows for he comforts their greatness with the being short and their length with the being light What I pray those big speakers are they better provided than Epicurus against these two which give the greatest anguish Do not Epicurus and the rest of the Philosophers seem sufficiently prepar'd for those other Evils reputed Who dreads not Poverty yet so doth not any of the Philosophers SECT XXXII and in 33 34 35. A Plea for Poverty NAY even he himself with how little was he contented None hath said more of a slender Diet for the things which occasion a coveting after Money as to have a constant supply for Love for Ambition for daily Expences when he preserveth himself from all those things what great need hath he for Money or rather why should he at all regard it Could Anacharsis the Scythian have no value for Money and cannot our Country Philosophers do the same A Letter of his goeth about in these words Anacharsis to Hanno Greeting My Cloaths is a Scythian Pelt Shooes the soles of my Feet Bed the Ground Dainties a good Stomach Diet Milk Cheese Flesh Wherefore you may come over to me as being at leisure But those Presents of yours wherein you display your magnificence offer either your own Carthaginians or the immortal Gods Almost all Philosophers of all Perswasions could be thus minded except those whom deprav'd Nature had perverted from right Reason Socrates at a Show when a great quantity of Gold and Silver was carried by said How many things are there that I do not lack Xenocrates when Ambassadors from Alexander had brought him fifty Talents which was a very great sum in those times especially at Athens carried their Excellencies along with him into the Academy to Supper provided no exceedings but set before them a bare Colledge-Commons The next day when they ask'd him whom he would order to have the Money drawn over to him What saith he did you not understand by yesterdays short meal that I need no Money At this when he saw them look somewhat dissatisfied he took c a hundred Pounds d of it lest he should seem to slight their Masters liberality But Diogenes more bluntly yet as a Cynick when Alexander ask'd him wherein he could serve him At present saith he a little out of my Sun He had it seems hinder'd his basking He it was who us'd to dispute how much he surpass'd in Life and Fortunes the great King of Persia That he wanted nothing the other would never have enough he lack'd not the others Pleasures wherewith he could never be satisfied the other could no ways attain to his satisfactions c A hundred Pounds A Drachma is valuable against the Denarius about eight pence A Mina 100 Drachmas 30 Minae 300 Drachmae d Of it Of the 50. Talents a Talent was the Greater 80. Minae 266. l. 13. s. 4. d. The Lesser
so violently that we should not see reason enough to endure them any longer good Gods m why do we make much difficulty for the Harbor is at hand death upon the spot an eternal receptacle into a State of insensibility n Theodorus said to Lysimachus threatning him with death you have indeed rais'd your self to great advancement if you can compare in power with a Spanish Fly Paul when King Perses petition'd him not to be led in Triumph reply'd That is in your own Power Much hath been said of death the first day when the Debate was expresly concerning death and not a little the second when the Subject was about Pain he that can remember that is in no great danger of not thinking death either to be desir'd or at least not to be fear'd k That he heard ill M. Crassus the Triumvir one of the three Keepers of the Liberty of Rome with Pompey and Julius Caesar he certainly lay under a flagrant infamy of unsatiable Covetousness both at home and with the Persians On this account Tully inveighs against him in his last Paradox He was also brought into some suspicion in the matter of Catiline but there compurg'd by him and perhaps he doth the like here only in point of disaffection to the Government in his time establish'd l Our Epicureans A colour or facetious Argument taken to expose that Sect. m Why do we make much difficulty A Stoical case to favour impatience in Pain n Theodorus Call'd Atheist was sent Embassador by Ptolomy to Lysimachus King of Thrace where speaking resolutely he was threat'ned by him who was of a cholerick Temper when he bid him come no more into his presence he reply'd he would not unless Ptolomy sent him again Some of the Fathers count him falsly traduc'd of Atheism because he disallow'd the worship of the Greeks and being a Cyrenian and known to Ptolomy he might have acquaintance with the Alexandrian Jews SECT XLI That it is an opinion almost universally held by the Philosophers that wise men are always happy THAT order seems in my judgment fit to be observ'd in Life which is enjoyn'd in the treats of the Greeks either drink or be gone And reason good for either let a man enjoy the pleasure of taking his Cup with others or let him timely withdraw lest he being sober be fallen upon by the rest in a drunken Fit So should a man avoid by retiring what injuries of Fortune he cannot sustain These same directions of Epicurus repeats Hierom word for word Now if those Philosophers who are of the opinion that vertue of it self is of no consideration all that we call honest and praise-worthy they say to be meer Jargon and a pure Rant yet if these judge the wise man to be always happy what I pray do you think should the Philosophers descended from Socrates and Plato do some of which say there is so great excellency in the goods of the mind that those of the Body and external ones are eclips'd by them others do not so much as count them goods place all their advantages in their mind Which Controversie of theirs Carneades was wont to moderate as an Umpire to which both Parties refer'd their Cause to be compromis'd For whereas what things the Peripateticks think goods the Stoicks count the same Conveniencies and yet the Peripateticks do not attribute more to Riches Health and other things of like Nature then the Stoicks since they were to be weigh'd by reality not words he deny'd there was any just cause of Dissention Wherefore let the Philosophers of other Perswasions look to it how they can gain this Point Yet I am pleas'd that they make a profession beseeming Philosophers about wise mens title to living in perpetual happiness But since we must be going to morrow let us comprise in memory these five days Debates And to say the truth I think I shall draw them up in writing for upon what can we better employ o this leisure such as it is and we will send these other five Books to our Friend Brutus by whom we have not only been invited to the making Philosophical Treatises p but also provok'd Wherein how much we shall profit others we cannot easily tell but for our own most bitter griefs and various disquiets charging us on every side no other relief could be found o This leisure such as it is Spoken with some Stomach for his being at that time in Prudence oblig'd to compound for his safety by retirement from his honourable Emploiments p But also provok'd By example and the address of his Book upon alike Subject FINIS THE CONTENTS Of the First BOOK Comforts against Death The Prologue Sect. 1 2 3 4. SECT I. THAT the Greeks were inferior to the Romans in most Points of useful knowledge Page 1. SECT II. However Superior in Poetry Pictures Musick and Geometry P. 3. SECT III. Equall'd by them in Oratory which is encouragement to set upon Philosophy P. 5. SECT IV. Philosophy joyn'd with Oratory is more beneficial P. 6. SECT V. The Position that the Proponent taketh Death to be Evil. P. 8. SECT VI. The local Hell of the Poets to be fictitious P. 10. SECT VII They who are not are not miserable P. 12. SECT VIII Nor is dying miserable but essay'd to be prov'd rather good P. 14. SECT IX What Death is What the Soul in vulgar opinion P. 16. SECT X. What it is in the judgment of divers Philosophers P. 17. SECT XI Inferences from these different Opinions P. 19. SECT XII Arguments for the Souls subsistence after death from immemorial Tradition from Funeral Rites and from the veneration of ancient Heroes P. 21. SECT XIII From this that there is a Tradition of the Superior Gods having been Men deceas'd P. 23. SECT XIV From an innate care of Posterity Zeal for the State P. 25. SECT XV And thirst after Glory P. 26. SECT XVI That dead mens Souls abide in Caverns under Earth is the groundless Fiction of Poets or imposture of Magicians P. 28. SECT XVII That it is more likely they ascend P. 30. SECT XVIII Nor vanish P. 32. SECT XIX But mount the Sky P. 33. SECT XX. And thence contemplate Nature P. 35. SECT XXI That the Epicureans who plead for Annihilation have no such reason to triumph in their Scheme of Natural knowledge improved P. 37. SECT XXII An immaterial Substance though invisible may subsist of it self as God so the Soul P. 38. SECT XXIII Arguments for the immortality of the Soul from its being the principle of its own Motion P. 40. SECT XXIV From the capaciousness of its memory P. 41. SECT XXV Corollaries upon the former Arguments from that of Invention P. 44. SECT XXVI From further Endowments P. 46. SECT XXVII From its Divine Original P. 48. SECT XXVIII From its Faculties P. 49. SECT XXIX From its Nature P. 51. SECT XXX From the Authority of Socrates and Cato P. 52. SECT XXXI From the Sequestring it self from the Body