troubles to an
eternal haven.

The second topic which Cicero and his friends discuss is, the endurance of
pain. Is it an unmixed evil? Can anything console the sufferer? Cicero
at once condemns the sophistry of Epicurus. The wise man cannot pretend
indifference to pain; it is enough that he endure it with courage, since,
beyond all question, it is sharp, bitter, and hard to bear. And what is
this courage? Partly excitement, partly the impulse of honour or of shame,
partly the habituation which steels the endurance of the gladiator. Keep,
therefore--this is the conclusion--stern restraint over the feminine
elements of your soul, and learn not only to despise the attacks of pain,
but also

"The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune".

From physical, the discussion naturally passes to mental, suffering.
For grief, as well as for pain, he prescribes the remedy of the
Stoics--_aequanimitas_--"a calm serenity of mind". The wise man,
ever serene and composed, is moved neither by pain or sorrow, by fear
or desire. He is equally undisturbed by the malice of enemies or the
inconstancy of fortune. But what consolation can we bring to ease the pain
of the Epicurean? "Put a nosegay to his nostrils--burn perfumes before
him--crown him with roses and woodbine"! But perfumes and garlands can do
little in such case; pleasures may divert, but they can scarcely console.

Again, the Cyrenaics bring at the best but Job's comfort. No man will
bear his misfortunes the more lightly by bethinking himself that they are
unavoidable--that others have suffered before him--that pain is part and
parcel of the ills which flesh is heir to. Why grieve at all? Why feed
your misfortune by dwelling on it? Plunge rather into active life and
forget it, remembering that excessive lamentation over the trivial
accidents of humanity is alike unmanly and unnecessary. And as it is with
grief, so it is with envy, lust, anger, and those other "perturbations of
the mind" which the Stoic Zeno rightly declares to be "repugnant to reason
and nature". From such disquietudes it is the wise man who is free.

The fifth and last book discusses the great question, Is virtue of
itself sufficient to make life happy? The bold conclusion is, that it is
sufficient. Cicero is not content with the timid qualifications adopted
by the school of the Peripatetics, who say one moment that external
advantages and worldly prosperity are nothing, and then again admit that,
though