slaughter good against us; and if these fail to take cognisance of
the fact, we are punished in the other world as deserters of our duty:

"Proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum
Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi
Proiecere animas."

["Thence the sad ones occupy the next abodes, who, though free
from guilt, were by their own hands slain, and, hating light,
sought death."--AEneid, vi. 434.]

There is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied to than in
breaking it, and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in
Cato; 'tis indiscretion and impatience that push us on to these
precipices: no accidents can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks
and requires evils, pains, and grief, as the things by which she is
nourished and supported; the menaces of tyrants, racks, and tortures
serve only to animate and rouse her:

"Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus
Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damma, percmdes, ab ipso
Ducit opes, animumque ferro."

["As in Mount Algidus, the sturdy oak even from the axe itself
derives new vigour and life."--Horace, Od., iv. 4, 57.]

And as another says:

"Non est, ut putas, virtus, pater,
Timere vitam; sed malis ingentibus
Obstare, nec se vertere, ac retro dare."

["Father, 'tis no virtue to fear life, but to withstand great
misfortunes, nor turn back from them."--Seneca, Theb., i. 190.]

Or as this:

"Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem
Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest."

["It is easy in adversity to despise death; but he acts more
bravely, who can live wretched."--Martial, xi. 56, 15.]

'Tis cowardice, not virtue, to lie squat in a furrow, under a tomb, to
evade the blows of fortune; virtue never stops nor goes out of her path,
for the greatest storm that blows:

"Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae."

["Should the world's axis crack, the ruins will but crush
a fearless head."--Horace, Od., iii. 3, 7.]

For the most part, the flying from other inconveniences brings us to
this; nay, endeavouring to evade death, we often run into its very mouth:

"Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori?"

["Tell me, is it not madness, that one should die for f