Part 44 (1/2)

Syracuse and Agrigentum, the fairest towns in Sicily, which had sometimes 700,000 inhabitants, are now decayed: the names of Hieron, Empedocles, &c., of those mighty numbers of people, only left. One Anacharsis is remembered amongst the Scythians; the world itself must have an end; and every part of it. _Caeterae igitur urbes sunt mortales_, as Peter [3906]Gillius concludes of Constantinople, _haec sane quamdiu erunt homines, futura mihi videtur immortalis_; but 'tis not so: nor site, nor strength, nor sea nor land, can vindicate a city, but it and all must vanish at last. And as to a traveller great mountains seem plains afar off, at last are not discerned at all; cities, men, monuments decay,--_nec solidis prodest sua machina terris_, [3907]the names are only left, those at length forgotten, and are involved in perpetual night.

[3908]”Returning out of Asia, when I sailed from Aegina toward Megara, I began” (saith Servius Sulpicius, in a consolatory epistle of his to Tully) ”to view the country round about. Aegina was behind me, Megara before, Piraeus on the right hand, Corinth on the left, what flouris.h.i.+ng towns heretofore, now prostrate and overwhelmed before mine eyes? I began to think with myself, alas, why are we men so much disquieted with the departure of a friend, whose life is much shorter? [3909]When so many goodly cities lie buried before us. Remember, O Servius, thou art a man; and with that I was much confirmed, and corrected myself.” Correct then likewise, and comfort thyself in this, that we must necessarily die, and all die, that we shall rise again: as Tully held; _Jucundiorque multo congressus noster futurus, quam insuavis et acerbus digressus_, our second meeting shall be much more pleasant than our departure was grievous.

Aye, but he was my most dear and loving friend, my sole friend,

[3910] ”Quis deciderio sit pudor aut modus Tam chari capitis?”------

”And who can blame my woe?”

Thou mayst be ashamed, I say with [3911]Seneca, to confess it, ”in such a [3912]tempest as this to have but one anchor,” go seek another: and for his part thou dost him great injury to desire his longer life. [3913]”Wilt thou have him crazed and sickly still,” like a tired traveller that comes weary to his inn, begin his journey afresh, ”or to be freed from his miseries; thou hast more need rejoice that he is gone.” Another complains of a most sweet wife, a young wife, _Nondum sustulerat flavum Proserpina crinem_, such a wife as no mortal man ever had, so good a wife, but she is now dead and gone, _laethaeoque jacet condita sarcophago_. I reply to him in Seneca's words, if such a woman at least ever was to be had, [3914]”He did either so find or make her; if he found her, he may as happily find another;” if he made her, as Critobulus in Xenophon did by his, he may as good cheap inform another, _et bona tam sequitur, quam bona prima fuit_; he need not despair, so long as the same master is to be had. But was she good? Had she been so tired peradventure as that Ephesian widow in Petronius, by some swaggering soldier, she might not have held out. Many a man would have been willingly rid of his: before thou wast bound, now thou art free; [3915]”and 'tis but a folly to love thy fetters though they be of gold.” Come into a third place, you shall have an aged father sighing for a son, a pretty child;

[3916] ”Imp.u.b.e pectus quale vel impia Molliret Thrac.u.m pectora.”

------”He now lies asleep, Would make an impious Thracian weep.”

Or some fine daughter that died young, _Nondum experta novi gaudia prima tori_. Or a forlorn son for his deceased father. But why? _Prior exiit, prior intravit_, he came first, and he must go first. [3917]_Tu frustra pius, heu_, &c. What, wouldst thou have the laws of nature altered, and him to live always? Julius Caesar, Augustus, Alcibiades, Galen, Aristotle, lost their fathers young. And why on the other side shouldst thou so heavily take the death of thy little son?

[3918] ”Num quia nec fato, merita nec morte peribat, Sed miser ante diem”------

he died before his time, perhaps, not yet come to the solstice of his age, yet was he not mortal? Hear that divine [3919]Epictetus, ”If thou covet thy wife, friends, children should live always, thou art a fool.” He was a fine child indeed, _dignus Apollineis lachrymis_, a sweet, a loving, a fair, a witty child, of great hope, another Eteoneus, whom Pindarus the poet and Aristides the rhetorician so much lament; but who can tell whether he would have been an honest man? He might have proved a thief, a rogue, a spendthrift, a disobedient son, vexed and galled thee more than all the world beside, he might have wrangled with thee and disagreed, or with his brothers, as Eteocles and Polynices, and broke thy heart; he is now gone to eternity, as another Ganymede, in the [3920]flower of his youth, ”as if he had risen,” saith [3921]Plutarch, ”from the midst of a feast” before he was drunk, ”the longer he had lived, the worse he would have been,” _et quo vita longior_, (Ambrose thinks) _culpa numerosior_, more sinful, more to answer he would have had. If he was naught, thou mayst be glad he is gone; if good, be glad thou hadst such a son. Or art thou sure he was good? It may be he was an hypocrite, as many are, and howsoever he spake thee fair, peradventure he prayed, amongst the rest that Icaro Menippus heard at Jupiter's whispering place in Lucian, for his father's death, because he now kept him short, he was to inherit much goods, and many fair manors after his decease. Or put case he was very good, suppose the best, may not thy dead son expostulate with thee, as he did in the same [3922]Lucian, ”why dost thou lament my death, or call me miserable that am much more happy than thyself? what misfortune is befallen me? Is it because I am not so bald, crooked, old, rotten, as thou art? What have I lost, some of your good cheer, gay clothes, music, singing, dancing, kissing, merry-meetings, _thalami lubentias_, &c., is that it? Is it not much better not to hunger at all than to eat: not to thirst than to drink to satisfy thirst: not to be cold than to put on clothes to drive away cold? You had more need rejoice that I am freed from diseases, agues, cares, anxieties, livor, love, covetousness, hatred, envy, malice, that I fear no more thieves, tyrants, enemies, as you do.” [3923]_Ad cinerem et manes credis curare sepultos_? ”Do they concern us at all, think you, when we are once dead?”

Condole not others then overmuch, ”wish not or fear thy death.” [3924]

_Summum nec optes diem nec metuas_; 'tis to no purpose.

”Excessi e vitae aerumnis facilisque lubensque Ne perjora ipsa morte dehinc videam.”

”I left this irksome life with all mine heart, Lest worse than death should happen to my part.”

[3925]Cardinal Brundusinus caused this epitaph in Rome to be inscribed on his tomb, to show his willingness to die, and tax those that were so both to depart. Weep and howl no more then, 'tis to small purpose; and as Tully adviseth us in the like case, _Non quos amisimus, sed quantum lugere par sit cogitemus_: think what we do, not whom we have lost. So David did, 2 Sam. xxii., ”While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; but being now dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him again? I shall go to him, but he cannot return to me.” He that doth otherwise is an intemperate, a weak, a silly, and indiscreet man. Though Aristotle deny any part of intemperance to be conversant about sorrow, I am of [3926]Seneca's mind, ”he that is wise is temperate, and he that is temperate is constant, free from pa.s.sion, and he that is such a one, is without sorrow,” as all wise men should be.

The [3927]Thracians wept still when a child was born, feasted and made mirth when any man was buried: and so should we rather be glad for such as die well, that they are so happily freed from the miseries of this life.

When Eteoneus, that n.o.ble young Greek, was so generally lamented by his friends, Pindarus the poet feigns some G.o.d saying, _Silete homines, non enim miser est_, &c. be quiet good folks, this young man is not so miserable as you think; he is neither gone to Styx nor Acheron, _sed gloriosus et senii expers heros_, he lives for ever in the Elysian fields.

He now enjoys that happiness which your great kings so earnestly seek, and wears that garland for which ye contend. If our present weakness is such, we cannot moderate our pa.s.sions in this behalf, we must divert them by all means, by doing something else, thinking of another subject. The Italians most part sleep away care and grief, if it unseasonably seize upon them, Danes, Dutchmen, Polanders and Bohemians drink it down, our countrymen go to plays: do something or other, let it not transpose thee, or by [3928]

”premeditation make such accidents familiar,” as Ulysses that wept for his dog, but not for his wife, _quod paratus esset animo obfirmato_, (Plut. _de anim. tranq._) ”accustom thyself, and harden beforehand by seeing other men's calamities, and applying them to thy present estate;” _Praevisum est levius quod fuit ante malum_. I will conclude with [3929]Epictetus, ”If thou lovest a pot, remember 'tis but a, pot thou lovest, and thou wilt not be troubled when 'tis broken: if thou lovest a son or wife, remember they were mortal, and thou wilt not be so impatient.” And for false fears and all other fortuitous inconveniences, mischances, calamities, to resist and prepare ourselves, not to faint is best: [3930]_Stultum est timere quod vitari non potest_, 'tis a folly to fear that which cannot be avoided, or to be discouraged at all.

[3931] ”Nam quisquis trepidus pavet vel optat, Abjecit clypeum, locoque motus Nect.i.t qua valeat trahi catenam.”

”For he that so faints or fears, and yields to his pa.s.sion, flings away his own weapons, makes a cord to bind himself, and pulls a beam upon his own head.”

MEMB. VI.

_Against Envy, Livor, Emulation, Hatred, Ambition, Self-love, and all other Affections_.

Against those other [3932]pa.s.sions and affections, there is no better remedy than as mariners when they go to sea, provide all things necessary to resist a tempest: to furnish ourselves with philosophical and Divine precepts, other men's examples, [3933]_Periculum ex aliis facere, sibi quod ex usu siet_: To balance our hearts with love, charity, meekness, patience, and counterpoise those irregular motions of envy, livor, spleen, hatred, with their opposite virtues, as we bend a crooked staff another way, to oppose [3934]”sufferance to labour, patience to reproach,” bounty to covetousness, fort.i.tude to pusillanimity, meekness to anger, humility to pride, to examine ourselves for what cause we are so much disquieted, on what ground, what occasion, is it just or feigned? And then either to pacify ourselves by reason, to divert by some other object, contrary pa.s.sion, or premeditation. [3935]_Meditari sec.u.m oportet quo pacto adversam aerumnam ferat, Paricla, d.a.m.na, exilia peregre rediens semper cogitet, aut filii peccatum, aut uxoris mortem, aut morb.u.m filiae, communia esse haec: fieri posse, ut ne quid animo sit novum_. To make them familiar, even all kind of calamities, that when they happen they may be less troublesome unto us. _In secundis meditare, quo pacto feras adversa_: or out of mature judgment to avoid the effect, or disannul the cause, as they do that are troubled with toothache, pull them quite out.

[3936] ”Ut vivat castor, sibi testes amputat ipse; Tu quoque siqua nocent, abjice, tutus eris.”

”The beaver bites off's stones to save the rest: Do thou the like with that thou art opprest.”

Or as they that play at wasters, exercise themselves by a few cudgels how to avoid an enemy's blows: let us arm ourselves against all such violent incursions, which may invade our minds. A little experience and practice will inure us to it; _vetula vulpes_, as the proverb saith, _laqueo haud capitur_, an old fox is not so easily taken in a snare; an old soldier in the world methinks should not be disquieted, but ready to receive all fortunes, encounters, and with that resolute captain, come what may come, to make answer,

[3937] ------”non ulla laborum O virgo nova mi facies inopinaque surgit, Omnia percepi atque animo mec.u.m ante peregi.”

”No labour comes at unawares to me, For I have long before cast what may be.”

[3938] ------”non hoc primum mea pectora vulnus Senserunt, graviora tuli”------