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
there are more and more dangerous Diseases of the Soul than of the Body For even these latter are therefore vexatious because they reach the Soul and afflict it Now the Soul vex'd is as saith Ennius to all quiet lost Stays no where long by new Lusts still is toss'd Now what Bodily Diseases in the whole World can be more grievous than those two Diseases to pass over the rest I say than Discontent and Lust But how can it be prov'd that it should be able to cure it self when it was the Soul that invented the Art of curing the Body And whereas the disposition of Bodies and Nature doth work much towards the curing of Bodies nor are Patients yet come under cure by certain consequence cur'd Souls on the contrary which are willing to be restor'd to their Health and follow the Prescriptions of the Wise do undoubtedly recover In truth there is a faculty of curing Souls even Philosophy whose succor is not as in bodily Diseases to be fetch'd from abroad but we must with our whole might and by all means labour that we may cure our selves Although as to Philosophy in its whole Latitude how much it is to be desired and studied hath been I suppose sufficiently discoursed c in my Treatise on that Subject call'd Hortensius and since that time we have scarcely ever ceas'd both disputing and writing upon Points of highest Importance In these Books too are laid down those Disputes which we had among Friends that came to visit us at our House at Tusculum But because in the two former there hath been spoken as to Death and Pain the third days Dispute shall make this third Volum for as soon as we were come down into our Academy I bid any one of them that were in presence propose a Subject to debate upon Then the Matter proceeded thus c In my Treatise on that Subject called Hortensius Tully writ a Book wherein he answers the Objections against Philosophy made by Hortensius and therefore calls it by his Name it is not now extant SECT IV. The Position offers it as a probable Opinion that a Wise man is liable to Discontent S. IT is my judgment that Discontent may be incident to a Wise man M. May the other Disturbances too Fears Lusts Wrathfulness for these are in a manner of that Nature which the Greeks call Passions I might Diseases and the word would fully justifie me But the Expression hath not been received in our Language for Pittying Envying Giggling Rejoycing all these the Greeks call Diseases being Commotions of the mind rebelling against Reason but we may as I suppose style the same inordinate Emotions of mind Distempers Diseases we cannot in any receiv'd Sense of the Word unless you be of another judgment S. I am in that clearly of your mind M. Do you think then that these are incident to a Wise man S. Plainly I am of your opinion that they are M. Then truly this Wisdom so much glorified is of no great value since it differs not much from madness S. What do you take every stirring the Affections for stark madness M. I am not the only Person that take it to be so but that which I use often to admire I find that this was the Sense of our Ancestors many Ages before Socrates from whom all this Doctrine of Life and Manners is deriv'd S. How doth that appear M. Because the name of Distemper signifieth a Sickness and Disease of the mind that is being out of Temper and that crazedness of mind which they called madness or being distempered Now the Philosophers style all Passions Diseases and say that no Fool is free from these Diseases but they that are not in Temper are Distempered Now the Souls of all unwise men are not in Temper therefore all unwise men are Distempered Now this Temper of Souls they judg'd to be plac'd in a calmness and constancy of mind a mind destitute of these things they called Distemper or Madness because in a disturb'd Mind as well as Body there can be no good Temper SECT V. That men imported by Passions are Mad. NOR was that less ingenuous when they term'd such habit of the mind as is withdrawn from the conduct of Wisdom being out of the Wits or besides ones self Whence we may perceive that those who gave these Names to things were of the same judgment as Socrates deliver'd and the Stoicks have firmly maintain'd that all unwise men are not sound in their Principle Now the Soul that is any ways Diseas'd and the Philosophers as I lately said term these inordinate Motions Diseases is no more sound than the Body when it is Diseas'd So it follows that Wisdom is the soundness of the Mind but Folly a kind of unsoundness Distemper and being out of the Wits d And these words are much more significant and expressive in Latin than in Greek as it occurs in many Instances a different Import but of that elsewhere now to the matter in hand The importance therefore of the very word declareth of what Nature and Property the whole matter under question is For they must needs be understood sound of mind whose mind is disturb'd with no Passion as with a Disease Those who are contrariwise affected must needs be called unsound of Mind Distemper'd or Mad. Therefore nothing can be better express'd than the Latin Phrase when we say of men that they are broke loose from Government when they are transported with unbridled Lust or Anger although Anger it self be but a sort of Lust for Anger is defin'd to be a Lust of Revenge They therefore that are said not to be their own Masters are therefore said so to be because they are not under the Government of their Understanding to which Faculty the Soveraignty of the whole Soul is by Nature given Now whence the Greeks derive their name for Madness I cannot easily guess but we are more distinct in our Terms than they for we separate this Distemper of Mind which is joyn'd with Folly and of larger extent from distractedness The Greeks indeed aim at a peculiar word but are not very happy in it What we call Rage they term Melancholly As though the Soul were only disturb'd by Choler adust and not oftentimes either by excess of Wrath or Fear or Grief with which sort of Rage we say Athamus Alcmaeon Ajax Orestes were transported He that is in this Circumstance the twelve Tables forbid him to have the management of his own Estate Therefore it is not written if he cometh to be unsound of judgment but to be distracted For they judg'd that Folly that is a shallowness of Parts or a mind fickle and destitute of sound judgment might discharge ordinary Offices and answer the common and daily occasions of the World but they look'd upon being distracted as a total darkness of the Understanding which though it seem a greater Evil than want of a sound Judgment yet is this of that Malignity that e a wise
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
speak true only I shall mind them though it should be never so true that a wise man acts always in subserviency to his Body or to word it more inoffensively doth nothing but what may turn to advantage maketh his own Interest the ultimate end and measure of all his Actions yet because these Principles are not plausible that they would keep their Joy to themselves but forbear to utter lofty words SECT XXII The judgment of the Cyrenian Sect how far allowable THE opinion of the Cyrenaicks remains to be discust these think that Discontent then ariseth when any Affliction falls upon us unawares there is much in that as I said above and I know Chrysippus is of the mind that what is not foreseen cometh with the greater Blow yet this is not all However an undiscover'd onset of Enemies puts into somewhat more Confusion than what is expected and a sudden Tempest at Sea gives greater Terror to those that are Sailing than that which was sometime foreseen and most such Instances have like Effects yet when one looks narrowly into the Nature of unexpected Contingencies he shall find nothing else but that all suddain things seem greater and that for two Reasons First because space is not left of considering how great the accidents are and then because there seems to have been a possibility of Prevention had it been foreseen the evil createth the sharper remorse as if it had been incur'd by some fault of our own That this is so time demonstrates that Process whereof doth give such ease that though the Evils remain the same yet the Trouble is asswaged and in the most taken quite away Many Carthaginians liv'd in Bondage at Rome Macedonians when King Perses was made Captive I my self also when young saw in Peloponnesus some Corinthians these could have taken up that Lamentation out of the Andromache All these I saw But perhaps too they had already Sung it over so often as to leave doing it any more for such was their Look Language all their other motion and presence that one would have taken them for Argives or Sicyonians and the Ruines on a suddain beheld at Corinth more affected me than the Corinthians themselves for long consideration through tract of time had cicatriz'd their Souls We have read a Book of a Clitomachus which he sent to his Captive Country-men to comfort them upon the rasing of Carthage in that is a Disputation of Carneades written which he saith he put down into his Note-Book upon this Thesis that it was the Respondents opinion that a wise man would be discontented at the Captivity of his Country What Carneades disputed on the contrary is written so great a Remedy therefore of the present distress is apply'd by the Philosopher as would not have been requisite when it had been grown old for had the same Book been sent some years after to them in Bondage it would not have been administer'd to their Wounds but Scars For grief diminisheth by a soft and gentle progess not that the matter is wont to receive any change or can admit it but use teacheth that Lesson which Reason ought that those things in reality are lesser which to appearance were greater a Clitomachus A Carthaginian who at forty years of Age came to Athens Carneades being Professor in the Academy of the Platonicks him he heard and afterwards succeeded in that Chair being well â—â—â—s'd in the Stoick Peripatetick and Academick Schemes SECT XXIII Forecast of possible Calamities is needful WHAT need therefore is there of Reason will some say or of any Argument at all of Comfort such as we are wont to use when we would abate the grief of those that are greatly dejected for this is obvious to lay before them that nothing should be thought unexpected But how will he bear his affliction more patiently who knows that there is a necessity for such accidents to befall frail men for this same Language deducts nothing from the Sum of ill only acquaints us that nothing is befallen us which should not have been expected Nor yet is this sort of Address wholly ineffectual in comforting but whether it have the most efficacy again I cannot say therefore these unexpected accidents are not so considerable as that the whole trouble should arise from thence Perhaps they give the greater Blow yet have not that effect to make Accidents seem greater because they are new but because they are sudden Therefore there is a two-fold Method of finding out Truth nor in those things only which seem evil but in those also which pass for good for either we enquire of the Nature of the thing it self of what kind it is and how great as sometimes concerning Poverty whose burden we alleviate by recounting How small and few things they are which Nature craveth or else we pass our discourse over from the subtilty of Arguing to Aâ—â—â—gation of Examples Here Socrates is produc'd here Diogenes here that Passage of Caecilius A Gray Coat often Wisdom may conceal For whereas Poverty hath still one and the same Force what reason can be alledged why it should have been b tolerable to C. Fabricius others say they cannot sustain it Therefore that method of comforting which teacheth Accidents to be common to men is like this second sort of Arguments for such Disputation not only containeth this to lead us into the knowledge of man's Nature but further implyeth that those things are in themselves tolerable which others have born and do bear b Tolerable to C. Fabricius He was General of the Romans his whole Cupboard of Plate was a Salt and Boul for Sacrifice which yet stood on a Horn Foot He refus'd a great Sum of Gold presented him by the Samnian Embassadors and return'd his excuse to Pyrrhus offering him to be second in the Kingdom of Epirus His Daughters at their Marriage receiv'd a Portion from the Publick Treasury SECT XXIV The use of Presidents THE question is about Poverty many Patient Poor men are instanc'd in About despising Honour many that have fallen into disgrace are produc'd and for that very reason more happy And particularly the Life of those is commended who have prefer'd Privacy and Retirement before Pomp and Business Nor is c that Stanza of the most potent King pass'd by in silence who commends an old man and declares him happy because he should pass to his Grave ignoble and inglorious In like manner losses of Children taken quietly are extoll'd by producing instances and thereby the Sorrows of them who exceed their due bounds asswaged so the persevering Patience of others causeth the Accidents to seem much less than what they were before reputed to have been Thus upon consideration by degrees it appears how much opinion hath impos'd upon us Now this the above-mention'd Telamon declareth I knew when I begot them and Theseus On future troubles still I thought and Anaxagoras I knew that I begot a Mortal For all these Persons by long consideration upon the
Circumstances of Humane Life understood that they were not to be dreaded after the rate of vulgar Apprehensions and in truth as to my judgment those who have long before consider'd and those whom length of time cureth seem to have been wrought upon in a manner by one and the same cause only that a Principle of Reason healeth the former Nature the latter when that cometh to be understood wherein the Remedy consists that the evil which was conceiv'd to have been excessive is not yet so great as to cast down a state of happiness This therefore is consequent that through want of consideration the wound is greater but what they imagine doth not follow that when equal misfortunes befall different Persons he only is afflicted by the mischance on whom it fell unexpected therefore some in distress when they have been minded that we came into the World upon those terms that no man can pass the whole course of Life without his share of suffering are said to have been the more troubled c That Stanza of the most potent King Agamemnon in Euripides his Iphigenia in Aulis bespeaks an old Country-man Father I envy thy content Who e're safe private life hath spent I envy much his happiness But Potentates I envy less SECT XXV The Cavil of Carneades examin'd WHereupon Carneades as I find our Friend Antiochus Record of him was wont to blame Chrysippus for quoting as some wise passage that Verse of Euripides No Mortal is advanc'd above all Pain But buries Children breeds up some again Then dys himself yet their deceased Friend Vain Mourners to the Grave with Pomp attend Dust will to Dust one Law is made for all Life like ripe Corn must by the Sickle fall He deny'd that Arguments of this sort had any influence at all to the abating Sorrow for said he that is the very matter of our grief to be caught in such a cruel necessity and a Discourse in rehersal of other mens Sufferings only to be suited to the Consolation of ill-natur'd Persons But I am clear of a differing judgment for both the necessity of conforming to that condition whereunto we were ordain'd doth with-hold us from fighting as it were against God and minds us that we are but men Which consideration doth greatly allay Sorrow and the recounting Examples is not produc'd to give content to the malitious but to inform the judgment of him that is in trouble that he is well able to bear what he seeth many have born before him with Moderation and Patience for they are to be staid up by all methods who are sinking and cannot hold together through excess of grief Chrysippus was wont to make the allusion as if the Greek word importing Sorrow imply'd in the very Term a Solution of the whole man This evil Humour may be utterly expell'd by laying open as I said in the beginning the cause of Discontent Now this is no other than an opinion and judgment of some great evil instant and pressing therefore also bodily Pain though the Fit be never so sharp yet is sustain'd by entertaining probable Hopes of Ease and a Life led with Reputation and Honour carrieth along with it such strong Consolation as that no Affliction can touch those who so liv'd or else Troubles make but a very slight impression on their Souls d That Verse of Euripides They are the words of Amphiarchus comforting the Mother of Archemorus for the loss of her Son SECT XXVI The mistake that trouble of mind is a Duty BUT over and above the opinion that our evil is great when a further opinion falls in that we ought that we do well that it is our duty to be disquieted at any misfortune then ariseth that violent Storm of excessive Sorrow From this opinion come those diverse and detestable sorts of Mourning neglects of being trim'd smiting on the Breast Thighs and Head Hence Agamemnon in Homer and no less in Attius is personated Tearing for grief at times his Looks unshorn Which occasion'd this ingenuous Saying of Bion that sure the King was out of his Wits to pull his Hair up by the Roots as though melancholly were to be abated by a bald Pate but they do all these things out of a conceit that they should be so done Upon the same ground also doth Aeschines inveigh against Demosthenes because he offer'd Sacrifice a Sevennight after his Daughters Death But in how Rhetorical strains how copiously what strong lines doth he compile what words dart forth that one would conclude a Rhetorician may take upon him as much as he pleaseth Which Liberty none could allow unless they had this Principle ingrafted in their Souls that all good men ought to be most grievously afflicted at the death of their Relations From hence doth it proceed that in troubles of mind some affect solitary Walks as Homer of Bellerophon Who o're th' Aleian Deserts stray'd alone Pensive and sought for Paths to men unknown Niobe is fain'd to have been turn'd into Stone I suppose for her eternal silence in Sorrow Hecuba on the other side for the bitterness of her Spirit and out-rage they suppose faign'd to have been transform'd into a Bitch Others again there are who in their Distresses often delight to vent their Complaints in Soliloquies as that Nurse in Ennius Now doth my Passion prompt me to relate To Heav'n and Earth Medeas sad Estate SECT XXVII Farther illustrated ALL this do men in Affliction and conceive it to be just proper and what ought to be done in such Circumstances and it is no small Evidence that this cometh from a pretended Conscience of Duty in that such as mourn in State if they chance to let any Action escape that looks like Civility or speak a chearful word they presently recompose themselves to a disconsolate Garb and confess their fault in having transgress'd the Ceremony of Mourning Nay Mothers and Tutors are wont to check their Children and that not only by chiding but also beating them if they say or do any pleasant thing whilst the Family is in Mourning they make them cry what when the time of second and less strict Mourning is come and it is found by experience that no advantage ariseth from Melancholly doth it not declare that the whole business was voluntary and upon choice What meaneth the Self-Tormentor in Terence I thus resolv'd in misery to share Chremes would my Sons wrong in part repair He resolves to be miserable Now doth any one resolve upon any thing against his Will I judge I should deserve the worst of ills He judges he should deserve the worst of Punishments unless he be miserable you see plainly that it is an Evil of conceit and not in its own Nature What and if the very Object forbids Lamentation as in Homer the daily Slaughters and great Carnage avail to Moderation in grief in whom this Passage is found Many before our Eyes are daily slain So that of Sorrow none can respit gain Bury we then