atum occidat omne?'
["Why seek to add longer life, merely to renew ill-spent time, and
be again tormented?"--Lucretius, iii. 914.]
"Life in itself is neither good nor evil; it is the scene of good or evil
as you make it.' And, if you have lived a day, you have seen all: one day
is equal and like to all other days. There is no other light, no other
shade; this very sun, this moon, these very stars, this very order and
disposition of things, is the same your ancestors enjoyed, and that shall
also entertain your posterity:
"'Non alium videre patres, aliumve nepotes
Aspicient.'
["Your grandsires saw no other thing; nor will your posterity."
--Manilius, i. 529.]
"And, come the worst that can come, the distribution and variety of all
the acts of my comedy are performed in a year. If you have observed the
revolution of my four seasons, they comprehend the infancy, the youth,
the virility, and the old age of the world: the year has played his part,
and knows no other art but to begin again; it will always be the same
thing:
"'Versamur ibidem, atque insumus usque.'
["We are turning in the same circle, ever therein confined."
--Lucretius, iii. 1093.]
"'Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.'
["The year is ever turning around in the same footsteps."
--Virgil, Georg., ii. 402.]
"I am not prepared to create for you any new recreations:
"'Nam tibi prxterea quod machiner, inveniamque
Quod placeat, nihil est; eadem sunt omnia semper.'
["I can devise, nor find anything else to please you: 'tis the same
thing over and over again."--Lucretius iii. 957]
"Give place to others, as others have given place to you. Equality is
the soul of equity. Who can complain of being comprehended in the same
destiny, wherein all are involved? Besides, live as long as you can, you
shall by that nothing shorten the space you are to be dead; 'tis all to
no purpose; you shall be every whit as long in the condition you so much
fear, as if you had died at nurse:
"'Licet quot vis vivendo vincere secla,
Mors aeterna tamen nihilominus illa manebit.'
["Live triumphing over as many ages as you will, death still will
remain eternal."--Lucretius, iii. 1103]
"And yet I will place you in such a condition as you shall have no reason
to be displeased.
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