aths of others; and how many
philosophers after endless discourses on death or immortality; how many
heroes after killing thousands; and how many tyrants who have used their
power over men's lives with terrible insolence, as if they were
immortal; and how many cities are entirely dead, so to speak, Helice[A]
and Pompeii and Herculaneum, and others innumerable. Add to the
reckoning all whom thou hast known, one after another. One man after
burying another has been laid out dead, and another buries him; and all
this in a short time. To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and
worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a little mucus,
to-morrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass then through this little space
of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, as an
olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and
thanking the tree on which it grew.

[A] Ovid, Met. xv. 293:--

"Si quaeras Helicen et Burin Achaidas urbes,
Invenies sub aquis."

49. Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break,
but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

Unhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I,
though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain,
neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing
as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have
continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a
misfortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in all cases call
that a man's misfortune which is not a deviation from man's nature? And
does a thing seem to thee to be a deviation from man's nature, when it
is not contrary to the will of man's nature? Well, thou knowest the will
of nature. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being
just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate
opinions and falsehood; will it prevent thee from having modesty,
freedom, and everything else, by the presence of which man's nature
obtains all that is its own? Remember too on every occasion which leads
thee to vexation to apply this principle; not that this is a misfortune,
but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.

50. It is a vulgar, but still a useful help towards contempt of death,
to pass in review those who have tenaciously stuck to life. What more
then have they gained than those who have died early? Certainly they
lie i