us destroy our money and the fortress
by fire; for I am well assured that this will be a great grief to the
Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shall
fall of our wealth also; and let us spare nothing but our provisions;
for they will be a testimonial when we are dead that we were not subdued
for want of necessaries, but that, according to our original resolution,
we have preferred death before slavery."

7. This was Eleazar's speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of all
the auditors acquiesce therein; but although some of them were very
zealous to put his advice in practice, and were in a manner filled with
pleasure at it, and thought death to be a good thing, yet had those that
were most effeminate a commiseration for their wives and families;
and when these men were especially moved by the prospect of their own
certain death, they looked wistfully at one another, and by the tears
that were in their eyes declared their dissent from his opinion.
When Eleazar saw these people in such fear, and that their souls were
dejected at so prodigious a proposal, he was afraid lest perhaps these
effeminate persons should, by their lamentations and tears, enfeeble
those that heard what he had said courageously; so he did not leave
off exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and recollecting proper
arguments for raising their courage, he undertook to speak more briskly
and fully to them, and that concerning the immortality of the soul. So
he made a lamentable groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those that
wept, he spake thus: "Truly, I was greatly mistaken when I thought to be
assisting to brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, and to such
as were resolved either to live with honor, or else to die; but I find
that you are such people as are no better than others, either in virtue
or in courage, and are afraid of dying, though you be delivered thereby
from the greatest miseries, while you ought to make no delay in this
matter, nor to await any one to give you good advice; for the laws of
our country, and of God himself, have from ancient times, and as soon as
ever we could use our reason, continually taught us, and our forefathers
have corroborated the same doctrine by their actions, and by their
bravery of mind, that it is life that is a calamity to men, and not
death; for this last affords our souls their liberty, and sends them
by a removal into their own place of purity, where they are